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I UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. \ 



THE 



GUARDIAN ANGEL 



POEM IN THREE BOOKS 



/- 



JAMES SCOTT, D.D., 

LATE PASTOR OF THE FIRST REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, 
NEWARK, N. J. 



"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who 
shall be heirs of salvation ? " 



NEW YORK : 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

346 & 848 BROADWAY. 

M.DCCO.LIX. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S58 by 
D. APPLETON &, CO., 
In tlie Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New Yorli, 



TO HIS GKACE 

THE DUKE OF A R GYLE: 

THE LORD REOTOE OF MY ALMA MATER: 

AN AUTHOR, 

AND THE FRIEND OF AUTHORS: 

THE BRITISH EDITION 

OF MY POEM OF 

THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 

THE AUTHOR. 

New Toek, U. 8., 185S. 



PKEFACE. 

My object in this poem of the Guardian Angel, has 
been to illustrate the ministry of the holy angels as 
taiight in the Sacred Scriptures : — especially in the fol- 
lowing passages : 

Heb. I. 14. — The angels, " Are they not all ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " 

Psalm xci. 11. — " For he shall give his angels charge over thee, 
to keep thee in all thy ways." 

Rev. I. 1. — " He sent, and signified it by his angel." 

The poem consists of a series of conversations 
concerning the invisible state ; the existence and min- 
istry of holy angels, as well as their guardianship 
over man, held by persons who met accidentally at 
different places, connected by a slender thread of 
story. I have made use of " the dream " as a poetic 
device, keeping in mind that several of the most glo- 
rious revelations made to man by God were made in 
dreams. 



6 PREFACE. 

From my own experience, I am convinced that the 
human mind is always pleased with the heautiful and 
the subhme scenes of the natural world. Who was 
ever tired by looking at an overflowing fountain or at 
a waterfall ? 

As many of the thoughts contained in the poem oc- 
cupied my mind, while beholding the Ohio and the 
Mississippi rivers, Niagara Falls, and Calton Hill, Edin- 
burgh, I was led, on subsequent reflection, to make 
them the grand scenic centres of it. Nor is it possible 
to give poetic interest to a didactic poem, without 
episodes on the beauitiful and the sublime in the visible 
universe. 

As the spirit of minstrelsy moved me from time to 
time, thought after thought arose in my mind, and line 
united mysteriously with line, like the bones in Ezekiel's 
vision, w^hen God's Spirit breathed on them, until the 
poem of the Guardian Angel became a living presence 
of beauty to me, as a creation of my intellect and 
heart, for I found it in the dej)ths of my own- nature ; 
I cannot forget it, nor entertain the thought of blotting 
it out of existence without painful emotions. 

I am met again by another trial ; it is the anxiety I 
feel on determining to unveU the virgin face of my 
poetic child to the gaze and scrutiny of eyes less joartial 
than my own. Like a father givuig away his beloved 



PEEPACE. ( 

daughter at the nuptial altar, who doubts, fears, hopes, 
and prays for her destiny, I too tremble for the future 
history of my poem of the Guardian Angel. I have 
nothing to say concerning the poem as a Avork of art. 

Dear reader, as the traveller who finds some relic 
of the olden time, intrinsically of little value, among 
the ruins of an ivy-mantled cathedral, deposits it for 
preservation in a museum, so do I commit this poem 
of the Guardian Angel to my generation for safe keep- 
ing. If one human mind from its perusal shall obtain 
clearer, nobler, and more comforting views, concerning 
the angehc ministry and GocVs solicitude for man, I 
shall not have written it in vain. In the language of 
Abraham's prayer for his son Ishmael — " May it live." 

J. S. 



POEM. 

The Poem seeketli to elucidate 

The doctrine of the holy angels, chief 

Their ministry to man. 

'Twas but a germ 
Born of the sleepless spirit, a stray thought, 
Which lighted on my soul like some lone bird 
Upon the neighboring tree. Nor can I tell 
How it did take its present form : long years 
It has been growing on my soul, from that 
Sad thought. As years rolled on a presence grew, 
An angel's presence, passing beautiful 
Before my mind, which, neither day nor night, 
I could forget. I loved that presence, aye, 
As loves the lover only. Always the theme 
Of angels pleasured me : in childhood's years 
Angelic history charmed me. 

Through the years, 
As I elaborated in my inner mind 
The lay of the Gruardian Angel, I have gone 
For imagery far and near, to build 
It to its present size. With the urns of thought 
1* 



10 POEM. 

Set up, all o'er tte rounded universe, 
I took me freedom. Meditation walked 
With me into the works of Nature, where 
The Poet's eye adores the beautiful ; 
And carried me away, where I could hear 
The voices of those unseen presences 
Which minister to the enraptured soul. 
I brought me offerings from every land 
Of thought, as broidery for the lay : nor is't 
Yet worthy of the theme that gave it birth. 

E'en as it is, a humble niche my heart 
Would seek for it in the galleries of Earth. 
I cannot blot it out of being now — 
It clingeth to my memory, as moss 
Clings to the old wall, and the elfin flower 
Clings to the ruined shrine : nor bury it 
Without an agony, no more than sire 
His first-born child. It is not vanity 
That leadeth me to send it forth to the world, 
But love inborn. Perchance along the path 
Toilsome and straight, up to the gate of Heaven, 
Some weary wayfarer may find his toils 
Lightened by what it teaches. May it be so ! 



THE GUARDIAN Al^GEL. 



BOOK FIRST. 

The world invisible, the visible 
Surpasses far in population. There 
The spirits of earth's myriads, sleeping dead 
Have habitations, and the hierarchies, 
The ancient settlers of the universe. 

Among that multitude of beings, one 
Kesplendent as the evening star uprisen 
On the hill tops of earth, shines. Seraphim 
To him are ministering, and at his side 
Conspicuous, bright, his guardian angel stands. 
Whether enthroned, or travelling alone 
Heaven's crystal river down, or holding leagu 
With souls and angels, his great peers, an air 
Of thought invests him, thought serene and grand 



12 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

And godlike. Spirits wliisper, as they gaze, 

And say, what grandeur in his looks ! The thought 

Which fills that noble soul, is not of God 

Alone, and the great hidden mysteries ; 

But also of the earth, the ruined star 

Of man, Nor rosy morn, nor dewy eve 

E'er harness up their chariots, the green earth 

To visit, but he likewise hies him out 

Unto the battlements of bliss, with none 

But his bright Guardian Angel at his side, 

To see the one-mooned world. 

Intensely clear 
His memories of earth. His grave is there — 
There was his natal spot, its woods, its wilds. 
Its mountain battlements., its cataracts. 
Its va,les, its vasty seas, are garnered up 
In his soul's sacred chambers, like the wealth 
Of palace treasured pictures, fresh and fair, 
As when he dwelt among them. Strong the spell, 
The witchery of youthful love inthrals 
Him still, 'tis part of his soul's being. Souls 
Upborne to sinless habitations, bear 
Their memories with them. Angels, as they mount 
From earth with tidings, halt on their ascent 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 13 

Beholding Mm, and tell if aught they know 
Of her, he loved and left a-sorrowing, 
When he upsoared for angel-countries, far 
Beyond the margin of Time's ocean strand. 

Dulcet to me his memory is, as tones 

Pealed from cathedral organs, at the close 

Of day. Like the o'ertopping pine, his form 

Was tall, his mien all nobleness and grace. 

The aspect of his countenance as grand 

As carved or painted beauty, rarely seen 

Among the living. Out of his pale face 

Ofttimes a seraph looked. In musing moods. 

And e'en in hours of joyance, he was wont 

To fall a musing, parted stood his lips 

As portals oped for eloquence. But what 

Is beauty in the human face, but lines 

More exquisitely carved, or colors tinct 

On clay, by God's own fingers ? Small the worth 

Of outward beauty, for the briUiant tints 

Fade from the hving dust. Deep in the mind 

Ip beauty shrined, and o'er the universe 

Its hues are poured like light, whene'er the soul 

Is moved to pleasure. 'Tis the spirit unseen 



14: THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

That beautifies the mortal form. The tent, 
Which fire-winged angels lodge in, is lit up 
By their celestial presence, and gleams out 
Illumined, to the midnight traveller. 
Thus doth the soul the man irradiate. 
And o'er him hang a veil of lustrous light. 
Betokening what dwells the home within. 

Sublime the clusters were of thought divine. 

Which grew upon that soul erewhile on earth. 

As the luxuriant foliage of young oaks. 

At times, methought he teemed with centuries ripe 

With wisdom ; then o'erflowed, as some full urn 

With water, clear and living from the rock ; 

But oftener, like the firmament, when all 

The stars are riding in their chariots brave. 

As angels voyaging, and pouring down 

Their beams in golden glory, on the hills 

And vales of earth ; for aye the beauty clear 

Of his mind filled the universe, and flowed 

Through all its veins. If he but spoke of hiU, 

Or tree, or stream, or feeling of the heart ; 

At once a halo of new light arose 

And brooded there. He sowed his thoughts around, 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 15 

As Grod sowed erst the teeming worlds, that morn 

Of creation. Once, as if his soul 

Were a vast ocean roused to wrath^ where ebhed 

And flowed o'erswoUen streams of thought, he looked. 

Ideas grand, colossal, like the towers 

Of ancient worlds, dwelt in his mighty soul. 

At other times, most suddenly across 

His face swept shadows, as if sorrows preyed 

Upon his heart. Anon his eyes would blaze. 

Like meteors clear and soft and bright, as if 

He heard the voices of young hope and love 

Consoling him, from out their holy shrines. 

He was a mystery to me, and oft 

I feared, when watching his enraptured moods 

Of feeling, that his soul straightway would scale 

Its prison walls. A shell the body is 

Where spirit nestles, nay the globe itself 

Is but a nest, from which innumerous souls 

Their everlasting flight have taken. 

Man 
Is the Son of Grod, — His Scion, like to God 
In his diviner nature, but finite. 
On that side viewed all sensuous he seems ; 
On this, all intellect with naught of sense. _ 



16 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

From loftier stand his moral nature looms 
Before iis, conscience rising like a tower. 
From height sublimer yet, he seems all faith, 
With ear intent on gathering every word, 
Which droppeth from the lips of God. The soul 
Of man is many-sided, of great powers, 
And destiny more grand than angel hath, 
Or being yet create. Sublime is man ! 

O'er the Atlantic sea, he journeyed far 

At manhood's dawn, far from his island home 

To the western world. In thought ofttime, he 

strayed 
A pilgrim homeward, loitered on its strand 
And climbed its heathery hills, for deep enshrined 
In 's heart it lay, where'er he wandered, bright 
And precious as a gem, which love preserves 
Locked in a casket. Of her orators. 
Philosophers and poets much he loved 
To ponder. Caves a.nd glens and mountain tops 
Which gave her martyrs shelter, of old time, 
He knew and treasured. Every battle field 
His memory recalled, and when he told 
Their glories, he revived the patriot dead, 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 17 

Arrayed the mind before, with coronets crowned 

Of freedom. Full of minstrelsy, as harp, 

Waking to poet's fingers, was his soul. 

And strange his lore, for one so young. The founts 

Philosophy had oped in the vast world 

Of mind, were not concealed from him — of yore 

Nigh these he worshipped. Nor with living seers 

Had not held living converse ; for his isle 

Of deepest, soundest thinkers was the field : 

And he had nursed his generous youth e'en then, 

Where thought profound, and deep, and clear, and 

pure, 
Most reverence hath of men. The poet's tongue, 
The oratorial thunders he had heard. 
The men whose fame surrounds the globe, whose 

tomhs 
Votaries fail not to visit ere they die. 
In the vast shrine of worthies, consecrate 
To genius, in his native isle, a niche, 
A vacant niche, there is and yet will be, 
Until his statue fills it and his name. 

This faintest sketch by inapt pencil drawn 
May yet suffice, if it shall find a place, 



18 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

A lodgment in tlie lieart of living men, 
Now on tlie earth, and to some yontb. unborn^ 
Far down a future age, a study be. 
Among imperishable names may bis 
And Isabel's be found — immortal is 
The memory of his guardian angel ; all ' 
My word-craft seeks is this. Most fit it is 
To sketch the lineaments of him, distinct. 
And full and lifelike, so the mind may see 
His presence, like a thing of life ; for 'tis 
His thoughts, which form the staple of my lay. 
His early history, though all replete 
With substance and adapt for song, I pass 
Untold, nor sound his fortunes, until first 
The star of love on his horizon rose. 
Blessed star to him. 

It found him, sure Heaven-sent. 
In the bright morn of life, when all the earth 
Is white with blossoms, and the sky 
Of future years is cloudless, only seen 
By lovers. Till that hour he knew not earth 
Had being so divine, so beautiful ; 
So much like those beheld in holy dreams. 
When the entranced soul looks through the sky 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 19 

Up to the sinless beings there. His hour 

Of love had come, eventful hour of life 

On earth ; the mystic hour, which never comes 

To man hut once. He loved ; great is that word, 

And weighty with innumerous memories 

Of joy and hope and sorrow ; meanings which 

No orator hath spoken, and aP' hard 

Hath sung. A wider, vaster universe 

Was oped to him, and the new shrine of love 

Wooed him to worship— shrine of youthful love 

Shall never lack its numerous worshippers. 

Hard by the Mississippi's waters dwelt 
The maid create for him ; for there is not 
In all the realms of being one lone soul 
Unmated, all things are twofold in their lives. 
Spirits are made in pairs, and happiest aye, 
That spirit which hath found its twin-born mate. 
That blessed mate he found for him, foremade. 
In the recesses of the wilderness. 
The solitudes of earth are beautiful, 
Sentient and full of presences divine. 
Investing the earth-born, who dwell therein 
With heavenly bloom and dignity. In such 



20 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Was born this angel of Ms destiny 

And cradled there. Child of the wilderness 

Was she, and grew in beauty, like the morn 

In unseen skies, or flower in secret glen, 

Where no rude eye intrudes. All things most fair 

And holiest in nature, noiseless weave 

Their threads of being. Angels visit earth 

In silence, retreat silent, as the dreams • 

Of sleepers. Thought makes pilgrimages wide. 

Silent through universal space ; and light, 

Next swiftest, journeys silent. Trees, 

The huge cathedral trees, which the sweet birds 

At eventide made vocal with their glee. 

Branch, spray, and leaf, and all their odorous blooms, 

Glad of their dewy baptism, silent grow. 

On earth there is no sound when souls are born 

To God. In silence awful and profound. 

Spirits he cleanseth black, engrained in sin. 

The wheel of Providence, so high and vast. 

So laden with the destiny of worlds, 

Eolls ever onward, silent and unheard. 

What wonder then, that child of beauty grew 

To womanhood, amid the wilderness. 

Unconscious, till they met. But when they met, 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL, 21 

Each knew his mate, and earth diviner seemed 
To both, and life more holy from that hour. 
Each blossom has its destiny ; she was 
The only flower of time, which grew on earth 
For him. 

Words are the lifeless images 
Of outward things ; the history of love 
They never can unfold, nor faithful paint 
The witchery of beauty. Pictured words 
Breathe not, nor live. A sorcery there is, 
A sorcery in love and loveliness, 
Which none may know, save they who feel their 

power. 
By day and night, aye, in the lover's mind, 
Absent or present, dwells her image. Life 
JSTo pleasure has, so sweet as waking dreams 
Of love. • The most puissant mystery 
Of earth it is, that youthful souls sublime. 
With every virtue crowned, should instantly 
Halt, on the road of life and bow the knee 
To other human souls, once seen, nor seen, 
'Nov heard of, till that hour. The woods among 
He saw her first, most beautiful to him 
In her wild youth — his inmost soul awoke 



22 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

To feeling and to joy, such as before 
Naught had awakened in't. 

The trees are fair 
At summertide, when sultry days serene 
Lie motionless on earth and sea and sky. 
The hght is passing fair, when after night 
Of pain, the sunbeams gild the weary couch. 
Fair laughs the earth, when the black storm is past, 
And the loud flapping of its wings no more 
Eesound. The hills are beautiful at night, 
When all the burning stars do stand agaze 
From altitudes cerulean and vast : 
But all this beauty only is, to die. 
Trees, light, earth, storm, hills, stars, insentient all. 
Must perish. Not so human beauty, seen 
By eyes of love. Decay comes never nigh 
"With its effacing fingers" — death itself 
Mars not its memory ; and such was hers 
To him, who loved her. She the beam of light 
Created to illume the darkened shrine 
Of his existence. Earth must have her moon, 
To light her through the pathless fields of air, 
And man his star to light him up to Heaven. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 23 

The Mississippi is the central stream 

Of tlie vast westeru continent, in twain 

From tlie great northern lakes dividing it, 

Down to the balmy Gulf of Mexico. 

On green and terraced bluff, of alpine swell, 

The orient overlooking, to the north. 

Some twice two hundred miles above the mouth 

Of the Missouri, was the childhood's home 

Of Isabelle the fair. 

He floated down 
The Mississippi, in his bark canoe, 
One star-lit autumn eve ; a lamp shone out 
High up the western banks, v/hich stirred his soul, 
As if a spirit spake, with memories 
Of other lands. Perchance he musing heard 
His ministering angel's voice, for God • 
To every man his angel gives, who ne'er 
Leaves him alone. Soon, on the river's banks 
He stood ; then to a willow half submerged 
Moored his canoe, and clombed the winding way 
Up to the lighted mansion ; entering it ; 
No more aimless to roam on earth ; for there 
He found his father's friend, a patriot 
Self exiled from fair France ; and here his fate 



24: T H E G U A E D I A N A N G E L . 

Found liim, wMcli gave sublimity and bliss 

To all Ms after life. Young Isabelle 

Became bis heart's sole star. In all bis dreams 

He saw ber^ and in every revery 

He talked witb Irer. His mystery of life 

Y/as tbere — be loved, be won fair Isabelle. 

Tbree summers since, in flowery montb o' May, 

His borne by tbe Atlantic sea, wbere aye aside. 

From pilgrimages tbrougb tbe land, be turned, 

Farev/ell be bade, nor e'er again saw it. 

The day of bis espousals bastened on, 

Filling tbe future, like a jubilee ; 

And tbrougb tbe cbambers of bis soul, tbe sounds 

Of its approacbing wbeels resounded. On 

Tbat morn bis friend — tbe bard, whose numbers seek 

To waffc bis history far down tbe stream . 

Of years, bis sole companion v/as. , 

Tbe bay 
Studded witb argosies, on commerce bent : 
Tbe vast metropolis, all bushed and still 
As a sepulchral world, though sleepers dreamed, 
And sick and dying in their agonies 
Breathed heavy ; with white vapors covered were. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 25 

It seemed as if the robes of morning trailed 

On earth. We left the city ere the beams 

Of day perched on the towers like birds of heaven. 

The streets were all deserted, and the steps 

Of wassailers were not e'en heard. None stirred, 

Save traveller all intent on pilgrimage. 

All day, all night we hasted on our way ; 

And as the second morn came out of heaven 

Greeting the earth, the AUeghanies stood 

Before us, wrapped in mist, Hke seers. 

All veiled and hid from vulgar eyes. Anon, 

As day drew near, their lofty summits shone 

Like the golden battlements of far off worlds. 

The live-long day these mountain barriers 

We clomb ; nor saw we aught in gorge, or glen, 

Or waterfall, or precipice, so fit 

For meditation as the giant trees, 

Innumerous, lying in lone dignity, 

Dead monarchs. Side by side they stately lay 

In rows, like tombed corpses in the crypt 

Of hoar cathedrals. It was sad to think 

No resurrection morn would them invest 

With life and foliage. 



26 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Sailing adown 
The "broad Ohio, us the fourth day found. 
Serene it was, and beautiful that day — 
As heautiful as when who saw it first 
Named it " la Belle Eivi^re," — the river showed. 
Its hanks, its forests, and its ample vales 
All green with life and populous with herds. 
Embosomed in the circling hills, come hack, 
Full oft in dreams to me, far distant. High, 
Eemote, the azure, dome-like sky appeared ; 
Illumed and glorious with the summer Bun, 
Where islands of whjte clouds slow floated through, 
Like fleets of hierarchs pleasure voyaging. 
The winds lay sleeping on the far off peaks 
Of mountains dimly seen. Silence profound. 
Like some great presence, listening amid 
The fane of Nature, stood invisible. 
Thrice day sun-lit, and thrice the starry night. 
The white moon walking midst the golden stars, 
Like inmate of the sky gone forth alone 
To meditate, did wax and wane while thus 
We sailed. Nor once a shadow fell on us. 
O'er which the soul could brood as ominous. 
Not fairer may the heaven of heavens appear, 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 27 

Wken sinless angels walk its holy streets, 
Of God communing. 

Needs must I pass by 
Unsung, the sounding rivers, wMcIi came forth 
To greet us on our journey. Urns of thought 
I leave, thick standing there untouched ; of eld 
Lit up by spirits of the wilderness, 
And consecrated unto minstrelsy, 
While eartlfs young harp was green. scenes on 

scenes, 
Fresher than youthful memories and fair 
As the tall tree of life, I pass ye by 
With grief. 

Absorbed, I gazing watched the eve 
Of the eighth day, silent, the western gate 
Of the horizon ope. The blazing sun 
Had disappeared amid the forest. Sky, 
Earth, woods, and river instantly were dyed 
In crimson glory. On my soul, thoughts strange 
And new came flocking, like the birds of day 
Into the leafy groves, purpling the scene 
With angel presences most beautiful. 
Enough is told, my revery broke ofp — 
For then a hand me touched — o,n earnest tongue 



28 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Whispered — " The Mississippi/' and was mute. 

It was my friend — though looking towards the West, 
Mine eye had not observed where they two met — 
The sire of waters and his lovely bride. 
But now I saw the Mississippi sweep 
Silent and strong towards the sunny South, 
Bending the thousand-miled Ohio, like 
An osier twig, and carrying it away, 
As ancient conqueror his captive queen, 
Bound to his chariot. As the stream of time, 
With all its myriad wrecks of bygone worlds, 
Is poured into Eternity's vast sea 
And ceases, so Ohio was not — here 
Her history endeth. 

In the purple West, 
Beyond the Mississippi's swollen flood, 
Missouri's shores, with long drawn ranks arrayed 
Of giant sentinels, in verdure clad, 
Lay sleeping in the slant and misty lights 
Filling the forest-gaps, its source unseen. 
Far to the westward set the golden sun, 
While builded by his magic, in the East, 
High overhead the sevenfold arcli uprose 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 29 

In iridescent lustre, beautiful, 

Bridging the azure with, its curve sublime ; 

As if ten thousand cars might roll across, 

Freighted with angels, nor its span depress. 

Beneath o'er thwarted by that glory, rolled 

In the soft light Ohio's lovely stream : 

While southward, underneath, not distant far, 

I saw the Mississippi sweeping by. 

As sometime through an arch of olden time 

Triumphal, in the sweet Italian night. 

The traveller sees the slow procession pass 

Of southern constellations burning clear. 

That scene is graven on my soul. The floods. 

The crimson halo, the o'erarching bow, 

Stand aye before mine eyes in present light, 

Upcalled by memory's retrospective spell. 

And with themselves upcalling all the train 

Of thoughts which passed before me musing then. 

How wonderful must be the sinless world 

Around the great white throne ; how more than 

grand 
The soul of Grod, when all that I beheld 
Was naught, beside His glory unrevealed 
To mortals ; and how unconceived the bliss 



30 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Of holiest angels conversant with scenes 
Fairer than this, through all the years of time. 

My friend had stood impatient as I gazed 

In tranced silence. When at length he spake 

Abrupt, I started ; for his sudden speech 

Seemed purposeless ; his words at random thrown, 

Wide from the mark.—" Dost thou believe," he said, 

" Dreams are of God to us, as erst they were 

To the old patriarchs who in Haran dwelt ; 

Of import real, inspiration true ; 

Or things as unsubstantial as yon bow 

Built out of rain and sunbeams ? " 

To him thus 
I answered. " Dreams are twofold in their kind ; 
Some issuing from the soul like streamlets clear 
From the deep hills ; or lights from out the urns 
Of Time ; or trees umbrageous, green and tall, 
Born of the valley. In the mystery 
Of the soul's essence deep their causes lie. 
Their origin beyond all mortal ken 
Far hidden. Some but fleeting vagaries 
Fantastic by the senses formed, which rise 
Like vapors from the stagnant pool, when high 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 31 

The sun uprisen scatters his warm rays 

O'er fen and upland. Others again 

There are, which pass the mind's broad disc, as 

fleets 
Pass o'er the circle of the optic glass, 
Far out at sea, by angels builded on 
The banks of their great heavenly river, dreams 
Magnificent as orient palaces — 
Life dramas all, all launched by angels too, 
And steered unseen, in silence, swift as light, 
Before the sleeping senses. 

" Dreams there are, 
There have been, and shall be, whose sweep is vast. 
Far reaching in the infinite, deep concealed. 
In these 'tis thought by many that the soul 
Makes visits to far distant worlds, while sleep 
Locks all the body's senses up, and ere 
The gates are oped returns again. Such thought 
Is grand, befitting the large dignity 
Of the angelic soul. Its angel goes, 
Its guardian angel with it goes, in these 
Vast pilgrimages. Far away a land 
There is, where aye the future and the past 
Are seen, called Dreamland — there it goes. The soul 



32 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

For briefest instant standing on those Mils, 

Or travelling through, those vales hath memories 

Innumerable traced on it, which rise 

Like scenery before it in its walks 

Anon and musings on the earth. Such dreams 

Are revelations taken from the urn 

Beneath the everlasting throne." 

To this 
He said — " I had a vision this last night, 
In which I saw the scenery we now see ; 
Only the setting sun, the earth, and sky, 
Were more divinely glorious. Other things 
Were shown to me, not now beheld, which gave 
The dream mysterious interest to my soul. 
I dreamed that I was travelling alone 
I' the land of visions ; now, on mountain tops 
I stood, where I beheld the battlements 
Of Heaven, and heard distinct the music rise 
And fall, like ocean billows on the ears 
Of pilgrim travelling near its surgy roar ; — 
Then, seemed to walk through valleys white with 

tents 
Of seraphim ; where aye at every turn 
I met their heavenly inmates ; and they made 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 33 

Obeisance. Then, again, it seemed as if 
I paused amid a wilderness, and gazed 
On cataracts of alpine grandeur. Aye 
I felt myself borne on through varying scenes, 
Like an unbodied soul. 

" As wayfarer. 
When passing through an earthly palace, halts 
Sudden before some gallery's vaulted door. 
Awed by the presences seen there, along 
The canvassed walls and in the niches ; so 
Paused I amid the dream, entranced and awed 
By the grand scene before me : — 'twas this scene 
Now spread before us, but more beautiful. 
With something of the invisible world beside, 
As now the West like a pavilion glowed. 
Pitched for the great archangel. As I gazed, 
Methought I heard at intervals, far up 
Amid the gorges of the crimson clouds, 
The voices of young earth-born travellers 
To travellers shouting higher up ; and felt 
The presences of spirits ministering 
Unto me — nay, the spirit hand of one 
ThriUed me. 

" But here a change came over me, 

2* 



84 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

And all that memory has preserved is this : 

I sat alone in a canoe, borne down 

The current of the broad Ohio. Mute 

As rivers in the realms of death, was all 

Above, around ; naught heard I, but my thoughts 

Fast rushing through the halls of mine own soul. 

Most suddenly a rainbow noiseless dropped 

On earth from out the firmament ; a grand, 

Aerial structure beautiful uphung. 

Like the angelic bridges o'er the sea 

Of hfe — an arch of clear and gorgeous Hght, 

It spanned the Ohio river. Downward still 

Borne on, I neared it, and I saw distinct 

An angel stand midway its vaporous curve ; 

A giant angel ; on his head a crown 

Of wondrous glory gleamed ; afar 

Behind him trailed his robe ; and o'er the arch 

Floating, was stirred by the night-wind. Anon, 

I thought the angel beckoned me and spake. 

But incomplete, as dreams forever are. 

His words mine ear caught not. Perchance the 

waves 
That plashed around my course, likelier yet, 
My mortal ears, by sin sealed to the tones 



THE GTAEDIAN ANGEL. 35 

Of holy angel's voice, those words divine 
From mine enraptured soul shut out. Anon, 
In fearful effort those angelic words 
Striving to grasp, I started, I awoke." 
" How hard," he said, " thus frustrate to awake 
And ineffectual, when a moment's space 
Spared to the vision more, had given to him 
The words seraphic.'^ 

" Sorrow not," I said 
To him, " for certes, soon again will come 
That messenger, if aught the message he, as ships 
By sudden storm blown from the shores they coast. 
Out to hroad ocean, after many days 
Arriving safe when winds are down ; so dreams 
Pass and come back again ; nor doubt I, this 
Shall bring the guardian spirit again, who left 
His errand half unfinished." 

Here I paused. 
For up the Mississippi now had turned 
Our vessel. Mute, upon the rushing prow, 
The crew stood gazing at the vasty flood, 
Which seethed and muttered hurrying past, as 

though 
Instinct with some great life. Innumerous 



36 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, 

Were the images which, came before my mind 

By which to measure it — this most we took, 

A maniac prophet fleeing from the face 

Of God, seeking some unknown world. The gates 

Of day down-dropped, and all now visible 

Of that most gorgeous sunset, v^as a gleam 

Of golden light above the distant tops 

Of the dim forest trees, like to the trail 

Of angels on their road to Heaven. 

The chariots of the night arrived on Earth, 
Bearing the round white moon and silver stars 
Their riders. On the horizon, from her car 
Of glory landed that fair queen, and poured 
Celestial radiance from her heavenly urn, 
'O'er forest, flood, and field. Her aspect looked 
As that of heavenly priestess, at the shrine 
Of nature. The tall forest trees appeared, 
Like Druids stationed in the wilderness 
To worship God, The firmament of blue. 
When the enkindled stars sat on their thrones. 
Showed like a city on a mountain's steep, 
Seen by the traveller from the vale below 
At night, with all its avenues and squares 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL, 37 

And monuments illumed. What siglit of Earth 
Could be more gorgeous than a night like this ? 

A passing cloud, a vagrant of the sky, 
An instant hid the moon, and o'er the scene 
A long, blue shadow flung. At this my friend 
Bespoke mine ear and said, " 'Twere well to sit 
Us down ; the place — the hour — the memories 
Kecalled are fit for high discourse." 

Anear the prow 
We sat us down, where observation swept 
Far up the Mississippi. Still the cloud 
Threw its dim drapery over all the scene. 
Alone we sat, nor long in silence sat ; 
For albeit soon, — " I doubt not, I indeed. 
That dreams are given of Grod, and give, themselves, 
Enlargement to the wide domain of thought. 
Still why it thus should be, or whence the need, 
I see less clear. Man's sensuous essence fits 
His nature to converse with all the world, 
Yet more his puissant mind. The Holy Ghost 
And Kevelation's truth pour on his soul 
All light essential else. Perchance the dream 
Is the soul's Eden-birthright, still possessed 



38 THE GtTAEDIAN ANGEL. 

By it. If dreams were needful, then, to man^ 
More needful in his exile/' 

Answering him — 
In thought I led him back to the primal morn 
Of Earth, and to man's fall. " The Earth," I said, 
" When man was made, was nearer God than now. 
It lay at anchor in the hay of Heaven, 
As new rigged ship, moored in an inland sea 
Of Earth. The shadow of the hattlements 
Of the vast sinless land fell over it — 
This silver orb of time. From its green hills 
The great white throne and mystic bow were seen ; 
Heard, too, the minstrelsy at morn and eve, 
Of harping angels. Numberless amid 
The groves of Paradise walked cherubim 
And tongues and peoples. All obeisance made 
To man whene'er they met him. If desire 
Of travel e'er had then possessed the mind 
Of man, he could have passed unwrecked and safe 
In frailest shallop through the channels there, 
And seas replete with worlds ; as earthly bays 
Are with fair isles. In nightly dreams man saw 
Worlds now unknown, and visions had of things 
Future and grand. 



THE GTJAEDIAN ANGEL. 39 

" Change direful came o'er man 
And eartli, apostate. Angels then, sent down 
In haste towed off the erring Earth, far off, 
Into the wilds of space, where far and few 
The stars are visible by night ; by day 
One lonely sun. Like plague-ship on a rock, 
A desert rock fast anchored, it was left : 
Grod's interdict waved like a banner high 
Above its rocky battlements ; and round 
Its sea-girt shores angelic beings walked 
Forbidding travel there, from sinless worlds ; 
Save to God's special envoys. 

" Forfeiture 
Most sad was this to man, apostate man. 
Angels no more might with him parley hold : 
No more be seen by, save when sent down 
From Heaven, on special errand from the throne. 
No more might angel footprints mark the earth ; 
No more might sinless minstrelsy the ear 
Of man regale : no more might angel tents 
Be visible to man : no more the wings 
Of his own soul unfurl, and from the Earth 
Go out exploring other stars. Egress 
From Earth to man was barred, forever barred, 



40 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Save by tlie mystic spirit-ship of death. 
Of all his former state^ naught was there left, 
Naught but the privilege of dreams divine ; 
Which, haply, if collected from, a life. 
And in one tome, apart, enshrined, 
Were almost revelation," 

Here, paused I : 
The vessel veered, and the unclouded moon 
Disclosed four listeners sitting, of our words 
Observant — these unseen erewhile. A boy 
Fairhaired was one, an orj)han, in one day 
Bereft of both, when most he missed their care, 
His parents — while the summer's raging star 
Smote the red rivers of that deadly clime 
With pestilential flame. When both were gone, 
Another boy, scarce older, clung to him 
Of sable hue, a slave. Around the child 
His arm was folded ; on his faithful breast 
The orphan head was piUowed. I have seen. 
Oft in my dreams, since that eventful night, 
The orphan and his slave. Even then, methought, 
That servile forehead did contain a soul 
Not servile. 

Four in number there they sat 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 41 

The listeners : — one a venerable man 

Tall and white haired, with patriarchal flow 

Of reverend locks : and as the moonbeams fell 

In floods of lustrous glory o'er his face, 

As if from qLuenchless urn outpoured, I felt 

The oratory of his eye. He sat 

One side of the orphan boy. 

Upon the right 
Of the boy-slave reclined a woman, old 
Exceedingly, in robes of widowhood. 
Her large blue eyes shone radiant with the light 
Of deathless thought ; her feature clear and fair 
As sculpture. Spirit of statuary ! where 
Was then thy chisel, that thou didst not give 
That group to future times ! 

Amid the pause. 
The woman's words fell on mine ear distinct : 
" Seeing of dreams you speak," she said, " and 

things 
Spiritual and divine, no wrong it were, 
I ween, to hear and question. Pardon me, 
If I offend, who would not ; but your words 
Have touched my heart, that I must speak ; for 

naught 



42 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Doubt I, but angels stoop, at times, to hear ; 
And spiritual beings hold their watch, 
In ministering to the exiled souls of earth, 
Inspiring dreams, which future deeds may oft 
Foreshadow, and teach truths of life divine." 

Albert her words d rank in, into the depths 

Of his large soul. He bent him forward, while 

She spoke. The Ethiop and the orphan looked 

Inquiringly into her face, with eyes 

Like stars of love, at eve, before the moon 

Arises ; and a curious witchery 

Crept over me at every word she said. 

Nor can I tell why it were so, unless 

The music of her voice some chord awoke 

Of secret sympathy. 

At length, assured 
Her words gave no offence, then on she spoke 
What in her mind was upmost ; how her Lord 
When he was dying, on his painful bed. 
When life was well nigh ended, and perchance 
A something of the future dawn was nigh, 
Dreamed, and, what time he woke, divulged his 
dream, 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 43 

Mystic and wonderful. 

" In tliought absorbed, 
Beside bis couch by nigbt I sat, alone. 
He slept ; wben sudden up he rose, awake, 
Like one who dreams, when touched by human 

hand." 
Thus prefaced she the story of his dream. 
" ^ Saw ye mine angel, or his footsteps heard 
Near by ? — the sound of wings, of angel wings, 
Has waked me from a vision. Still, I hear 
The whisper of angeKc messengers. 
As if they ministered to me, in sleep. 
Audience methought an angel sought of me. 
He looked some far-off traveller, ofttimes seen 
On hill of earth, at early morn, whose robe 
Of mist trails far behind. I instant knew. 
And felt it was a spirit of glory, sent 
On secret errand from the throne of Grod. 
The angel had the visage of a man ; 
But taller than a mortal form his mien. 
The crown upon his head was not of earth. 
The harp not earthly, which his left hand bore. 
But ere his utterance reached my wondering ear, 
I heard the footsteps of my fluttering thoughts 



44: THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Descending and ascending througli my sonl, 
Like echoes of a falling tree. 

Ere long, 
Smiling ineffable peace, the angel spoke. 
Elect one, peace, fear not, tliy servitor 
Ordained am I of old, thine angel guide. 
In the Lamb's book thy name is writ : 
Writ in God's autograph, ere angels yet 
Had being, or the compasses of God 
Had mapped the confines of the universe. 
Hoary Eternity thy name elect 
Holds graven on its everlasting walls. 
The dial, which all things predestinate 
Announces, points even now to thy death-hour. 
He, who for sinners with the Eather pleads — 
The advocate — closes his argument 
For thee. Complete in holiness thy soul. 
For thee the Holy S|)irit brooding sits, 
A mystery in a temple ; and well pleased 
The Father. Lifted by the hand divine 
Of thy great proxy, hath the fragrance sweet, 
From the full censer of thy prayers, gone ujj. 
Blent with the increase of his sacrifice, 
Unto the Father's nostrils, high in heaven. 



theguaedian angel. 45 

A crown^ a liarp of holiest make, a throne 
Await thy entrance to the land of souls. 
Hearest thou that, sound ? — It is the pendulum 
Of ancient time, its oscillations slow 
Beating. Thou canst not hear it, mortal yet 
Imperfect — nor canst see the mystic thread 
Uniting thee to all the holy forms 
Enthroned and glorified. It vibrates fast, 
As they on tiptoe watch thy advent grand 
Into their realms. Soon shalt thou see the court 
Of courts, sublime beyond all pomp of earth. 
On earth great multitudes of angels stand. 
Awaiting thy departure from the shores 
Of time. No soul elect from earth departs 
In the death-ship alone, or through the vale 
Of terror walks, without great retinue. 
Surpassing princely coronation trains. 
What would the sinless hierarchies of God 
Declare, if they beheld one holy soul 
Of angel guides bereft, in that dark hour 
Of strange transition, walking lonely home. 
To its new dwelling in eternity ? ' 

" No more said he, but with outspreading wings 



46 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Of wondrous beauty, sailed away and soared, 

As eagle from a sea o'erlianging cliff, 

Into the empyrean. In the dream 

I followed him, as I were winged too. 

The moon we passed, and many a star, when night. 

The night of earth had sat enthroned in pomp 

Surpassing day. We passed the wheel-like sun. 

As he lit up the far horizon's steep 

With rays. We saw the battlements sublime 

Of the vast universe, unseen before. 

Huge amphitheatre-like cliffs, which gird 

An archipelago with isles besprent. 

Dense crowded on these ramparts of clear light, 

Kank above rank, sworded and helmed with fire. 

Thicker than cedars on the holy hill 

Of Lebanon, angelic legions stood. 

On, on we flew, the headlands we passed by, 

Creation's utmost limit, and went out 

Beyond the worlds, beyond the spheres of time, 

Into the airless waste of barren space. 

And there, hung balanced in the breathless void, 

Gazing, a desolation limitless 

On all sides round us. 

" Then the angel spoke 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 47 

' Earthborn/ he said, ' behold the ship of death 
Eiding the billows of eternity. 
With her great freight of souls/ 

" I looked abroa.d 
And saw a huge cathedral craft, her hulk 
All stripped, withouten masts, withouten sails, 
In silence toiling through the pitchy gloom. 
At times, strange wailings from her ribs of woe 
Kose tremulous to the ear, at times arose 
Jubilant shouts of triumph. 

" Here the dream 
Was changed. Methought a child I was, alone 
On earth. 'Twas summer, beautiful to see 
Were the white blossoms on the hedgerow trees 
By the woodside. • Balmy the air and blue 
The sky serene, with here and there a mass 
Of clouds whiter than hills of snow. The road 
I took was mountainous, and rich in wealth 
Of glens and streams, and woods and waterfalls, 
And lakelets forest-girt. Anon, a group 
Appeared of angels coming down the way, 
Who formed an avenue through which to pass 
Onward and upward. Silent all they stood, 
And made obeisance my steps before. 



48 THE GUAEDIATSr ANGEL. 

As the steep road I clomb with childish glee 

Alone. Nor long until another group 

Drew nigh, and formed themselves in rows, and 

stood 
On either side ; like sentinels they stood, 
While I fared forward. More and more they came, 
The angel travellers, thickening on the way. 
The mountain road up to its highest gorge, 
Cleft through the hills eternal, narrower grew. 
And steeper. Nor could I forbear the thought 
That I was near the land of angels, near 
Some city, whence their hosts forth issuing came. 
Still went I on, until I reached at last 
What seemed the summit of that Alpine road, 
And paused awhile to look around, and drink 
Into my heart the scenery sublime. 
Then what a wonder blazed upon my soul 
Astonished ! — all the mountain gorge below. 
Which weary I had thridded to this height. 
Stood solid with one countless, shining mass 
Of angels coming up. Host after host 
They came. Above, great patriarchal trees 
O'er all the boundless champaign flourished fair, 
Upon the blessed mountain's top. The road 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 49 

Through this wide meadow lawn showed great array 

With gonfanons, and banners, sounds of harps 

And symphony of psalteries and song, 

Approaching. — First, my Guardian Angel came. 

Joyful he grasped my hand, and in my ear 

This secret whispered." 

Here, she stopped and wept. 

With choking voice, scarce audible, so stirred 

With grief, then added — '^ Death was waiting, nor 

Would wait one moment longer. Ere he told 

That mystery sublime, the other world 

Eeceived his soul, and I was there alone. 

Alone beside my dead." 

The orphan boy 

No longer could his agony of soul 

Contain ; but loudly on his mother called. 

Like some lorn child, when wandered from its home 

And stopped by passing stranger. To his heart 

Closer the Ethiop clasped the boy — his tears 

Wiped ofP, and with kind words assuaged his woe. 

To change his trains of thought to channels free 

From sorrow, quietly I took his hand 

In mine, and asked if he had ever dreamed 

Of angels ? Instantly his eyes shone out 
3 



60 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Like meteors bright and beautiful and full 
Of joyful tbougbt^ and answering, well pleased 
To tell his thoughts, spoke thus in childish phrase. 

" The night dear mother died, from troubled dream 
They waked me. In the dream I thought one came 
To me and talked about my mother. Wings 
Had he, like albatross or eagle, such 
As I have seen upon the rocky cliffs 
Of ocean, in the distant land beloved, 
Home of my boyhood. — Pointing to the sea, 
He showed me where a galley rode the waves 
Steered by angelic hands — ' That bark," he said, 
' Bears thy dear mother's sainted soul away 
Beyond the shores of time.' — I cried for her 
To take me with her, and awoke to find 
Her dying. 

" Pallid was her face, and bright 
With an unearthly light her eyes. Her hands 
Were very cold, I feel their coldness still 
Upon my forehead ; and the words she spoke 
To me, forever shall I hear, as though 
They could not fly away from earth and me. 
With grief o'ercome I soon again returned 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 51 

Into the land of dreams. I seemed at home 

And in my little chamber, on my couch 

At midnight. Through the window I could see 

A little star a- twinkling in the sky 

Brightly. The young moon looked upon the star 

As if she loved it more than other stars 

Around it. Soon I thought I saw that star 

Come nearer and more near to me. It looked 

In at the window, and I thought I called 

To it, and said, little twinkling star. 

Come in. At this methought the star was changed 

Into a bird, and instantly began 

To sing more sweet than any little bird 

I ever heard amid the grove. When once 

The serenade was o'er, I thought it flew 

Into my room, and oh how beautiful 

It was. It turned into an angel, like 

My mother, and then hovered o'er my couch, 

Still growing liker and more like, until 

It was my own dear mother. Beautiful 

Her wings and mantle seemed. More close she 

drew 
And stood beside my bed, and fondly looked 
Into my face, and spread her pinions bright 



52 THE GIJAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Around me, and soft wliispered in mine ear — 
I tried to hear, but woke in trying," 

Then 
He wept aloud, at thinking how he woke 
His mother's words unheard. 

" Good messengers 
Are ever on the wing, between the earth 
And highest heaven," the old man said, and bent 
Him forward to embrace the orphan boy. 
This, too, he added — '■ Nor is it a thing 
Incredible, fair boy, thy mother's soul 
To thee was ministering amid the dream. 
Faster than thought can travel, travelleth 
The disembodied soul from earth to heaven ; 
And from the spirit realms again to earth. 
Most fit it were she should revisit thee. 
What time her duties at the great white throne 
Gave leisure." 

Now 'twas near the noon of night. 
For fast the moonlight hours had floated by 
Amid the reminiscences of dreams 
Foreshadowing the future — the unknown. 
As shining day and dusky night both met 
r the vale, so looked the orphan and his slave. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 5 

While they arose and stood — as light and shade 
Moving across the summer plain, so, they 
Before us, sohbing. 

" Sorrow not," I said, 
' ' Ye orphans, for most fitting night is this. 
For souls translated to eternity 
Earth to revisit, and most fit for dreams 
Dewy with inspiration." 

From his seat 
The aged man arose. Tall was his form 
And awe-inspiring, like a seer of earth, 
Whose inner life is full of holiness, 
Keeping communion ever with his God. 
Full in the moonlight standeth he, e'en now. 
For memory never perishes, but keeps 
Her thoughts with miser care, deep in the cells 
Of the fixed soul. As statue on whose brow 
Immortal thoughts are graven, so he stood. 
Then spake these words, solemn as oracles 
Of old revealing mysteries profound ; — 
We listened, I and Albert, for we two 
Alone remained. 

" Causes have holiest dreams 
Which dreamers little know. Angels must needs 



64 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Be the scene-shifters, for no hand of flesh 

Could build up architecture so divine 

And beautiful ; nor from futurity 

Lead up the shadowy skeletons of things 

To be ; nor ope the gateway of the world, 

Where Grod's old purposes have lain concealed 

From first eternity. The dreams this night 

Revealed to us have sequels, nor is it 

A thing to question, but soon some kindling ray 

From passing angel's torch, may fall on earth 

And lighten up their meaning. 

" Evermore, 
The future and the past appear in dreams, 
Looming like headlands seen far out at sea 
By mariners. Nay, passing strange it is. 
That scenes remote in childhood's years return 
And are reacted ; and that beings which 
No mortal eye hath seen, should sudden rise 
From out the womb of dread eternity. 
And flit before the dreamer. But 'tis. so. 
Divine and mystical are dreams, God's gifts 
To erring man, nor given to man alone, 
But e'en to cradled infants, and the years 
Of growing childhood, each to each adapt. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 55 

What mother hath not sighed to know the thought 
Which stirred her sleeping infant's soul serene, 
As o'er its face, like twilight o'er the sea, 
Gleamed the sweet smile, and from its lips of love 
Laughter came rippling out, as if its ear 
Heard whispers of angelic voices nigh. 
The closest dungeon, secret as the grave, 
Barreth not out the dream of light, of love. 
Of blessedness, and death alone has power 
To hid the march of nightly visions cease. 

All things are God's — all dreams — all waking 

thoughts — 
Beings angelic, mortals in then- flesh. 
Souls in their immortality, aU His, 
And Death and Life, Eternity and Time ; 
This night is His, an episode not lost 
In the great poem of His Providence. 
Oft have I thought that dreams to man are sent, 
To warn the soul of its departure near. 
Nor were it strange, if we should learn anon. 
The ship of death were voyaging hard by 
This very night," 

Not silent long remained 



66 THEGUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Albert, but answered — "Dream-worlds thick as 

stars 
In the blue sky there are, in winter nights, 
Which souls must visit, and strange converse hold 
With spirit-beings, so that passing out 
Of earth into Eternity, some thought 
Of the future may possess them, and make fit 
For higher and diviner mysteries. 
It may be that the dreams, they dreamed alive. 
Borne with them through the narrow gates of death. 
Become deep truths to the unbodied souls. 
Which stand awaiting on the strand of time. 
Like ship unlaunched. 

" Vast is the soul enlarged. 
Vaster than planet, star, or moon, or sun. 
They cannot think — not so the soul. Nay, more, 
They in the lapse of time must cease to shine, 
To traverse the great firmament, no more 
Needed to light the skies — but not the soul ; 
It never can return, nor in the womb 
Of dark oblivion be entombed and hid. 
It must exist forever, whether saved 
Or lost — its essence has no end. The term 
Of its abiding on the earth, the day 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 57 

Of grace, of overtures, of working laere 

Below, must end, all end. Nor endless e'en 

The joy of angels over rescued souls 

New born to bliss. But to tlie soul itself. 

In itself infinite, no end shall he. 

Death is but sleep's twin brother, nor long time 

Ere all of us shall converse hold with death 

Intima,te and familiar, as in sleep 

With our accustomed dreams, which still supply. 

On fit occasions, with fit help the soul. 

These are its towers of observation, these 

Its Pisgah realms, where oft it walks inspired, 

And learns the awful future. Even to me 

Have dreams great warning given of events 

Whose tops no eye hath seen. 

One dream I had 

Long years ago, or ere my beard had grown, 

Or I had thought to roam beyond the sea. 

Nor change of place, nor change of scenery. 

Nor wildest change of thought has from my mind 

That dream erased. I thought that I was dead, 

And buried in the hills beside a brook. 

Which evermore made music, as it flowed 

Close to my bed, and still methought, I grieved, 
3* 



58 THE GtlAKDIAN ANGEL. 

In the still grave^ witli deep regretful pain 
That I had died, or e'er I found to build 
The mighty purpose of my heart. For I, 
I too, a purpose had, through all my youth. 
Touched, if enkindled not, by fire divine, 
" To build the lofty rhyme,"' — and strike the harp, 
Which many a stranger hand had struck before : 
The harp of Scotia, which even then gave out 
Subhmest strains, that wondering nations loud 
Applauded, But nor Scott's enchanted lay 
Of way-worn minstrels and beleagured dames, 
And those who wept the flower of Yarrow's stream, 
' All wede away,' and deathless Bannockburn, 
And fatal Flodden ; nor the bard who sang 
' The lost Kilmenie, pure as pure might be ; ' 
Nor Motherwell's sad minstrelsy, instinct 
With simple Scottish pathos ; nor his lyre. 
Which sounded the dread plague scene ; nor wh^^ 

sang 
The Baltic and the North, and that weird fray. 
Where Munich's banners waved at dead of night. 
Arrayed by torch and trumpet, nor the flow 
' Of Iser rolling rapidly.' My soul 
Detained as higher themes, which gave their sound 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 59 

To less sonorous strings, and with, their flame 
In genius less sublime tindled, for me 
Grreater sublimity. His muse who sang 
' The Course of Time/ still warbled in mine ear, 
And lured me with the gesture of white hands, 
Waving me forward — till my heart was filled 
With that sole hope, to build one monument 
Of holy song, which might survive, not " brass 
Nor the famed capital," but this poor clay 
Which gave it birth, and being, and ensure 
Something unto his glory ; and that done. 
To lay me down and die — but in my dream 
I died, or ere I reached that only goal 
Of that my one ambition. Nor, perchance. 
Is 't wonderful that, since I dreamed that dream, 
I feel as one foredoomed too soon to die. 
My self-allotted task undone, my life 
Purposeless, and my death as bare of fruit 
As my life hath been. 

Troubled is my soul 
Witb this night's history of dreams ; nor yet 
Do I fear to die ! — so, if death meets me, ere 
I have achieved my earth scheme, be it mine 
To yield it up to one wbose sojourning 



60 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

On eartli exceeds mine own^ to finish it/' 

I answer made : " This night an epoch strange 

Will he, in all our memories. The dreams 

Will haunt us evermore, and fairer make 

Our earth state. Beautiful, more heautiful 

Than erst will he our future. Brighter forms 

Will seem to walk with us along the track 

Of time, and cheer us on our journey home 

To our great Father's halls. 'Tis wonderful. 

That on the mystery of God-sent dreams. 

Such unexpected dazzling light should fall. 

Ascribe not to hhnd chance such meeting. God 

The sower is, and reaper of the seed, 

And fruitage of all history. Unroll 

The map of nations where we choose, and then 

An armless hand is seen the helm to guide 

Of earth. The starry worlds, heaven's ships of fire, 

Not aimless drift athwart the firmament, 

But voyage on to shores foredoomed to them. 

Since the creation. God our teacher is 

This night upon the Mississippi." 

Here 
We parted, soft sleep like a mantle fell 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 61 

Ere long enfolding me, and with, tlie sleep 

Dreams came uncalled. The narrow streets of earth 

Were ne'er more thronged with multitudes, than was 

The sleep of that one night with dreams. Not all 

Can I recall, nor give them utterance. 

Some I remember, angels beautiful 

"With all were blent — their faces and their words 

My memory for aye will haunt. 

One claims 
A passing tribute in my lay : I seemed 
Slowly to climb a high sequestered hUl 
Of earth, for in the dream I found myself 
Upborne to verdurous mountain-tops, and stood 
As pilgrim stands, who waits before the gate 
Of some imperial palace, half concealed 
With foliage dense. While thus I stood there came 
A shining angel unto me and said : 
" Hail, brother, hail ! thrice happy I to see 
Thy face. I heard thou wast upon the earth. 
And from my course have turned to visit thee, 
For ever since creation's cold, gray dawn, 
A pilgrim have I been, wandering alone 
Beyond the frontiers of existence, where 
The pendulum of time I could not hear, 



62 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Counting its oscillations^ have I gone ; 

Worlds e'en no hierarch yet hath visited ; 

And things beheld, none see till they have dwelt 

Long ages in eternity : yet earth — 

Thy star I never saw till now, nor thee. 

Yet well I know that this is earth, the orb 

Of wondrous destinies. Thee, too, I know. 

Keflected in my memory hath been 

Thy face since first Grod gave me being, clear 

And beautiful as in the limpid pool. 

The forms o'erhanging it. By angel's hand 

Limned, I saw it in the gallery 

Of God, where hang the pictures of all earth's 

Innumerous generations. Mysteries 

Thou wilt not know, for ages link my fate 

With thine." 

As some great thought will sudden flash 
Before the mind, and disappear as fast, 
Ere yet the soul arouses to the sense 
Of its great presence, so this angel came 
And passed away. 

He scarce departed, came 
A second angel and saluted me. 
Tall as a fiery column, and as clear 



THE GUAJRDIAN ANGEL. 63 

Revealed was lie. He bowed again, but not 

To me, and spake. I knew, but knew not how T 

knew — 
His words unto my Gruardian Angel, near. 
Though, all unseen, and unsuspect by me, 
"Were spoken ; greeting, such as spirits have, 
They had, not having met since I arose 
On earth, fresh from creation's teeming lap. 
Erewhile together they had journeyed ; seen 
Strange wonders in the distant universe. 
Not oft explored by angels ; embassies 
Of mighty import had fulfilled, and dwelt 
Of old together : — this I heard them tell. 

Swifter than light that angel on his way 
Passed and was gone. Before me, in my dream. 
Another, mightier, stood. " Thou son of earth. 
Follow," he said, " and see the things not seen 
By mortal eyes. There is a world not far. 
Like unto earth, but sinless, which e'er since 
The ruin of its sister silent stands 
As if 'twere dead ; as fabled Niobe, 
When grief for her fair children to cold stone 
Transformed, so was that earth all petrified 



64 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

By sympathy intense, througlaout all time, 
Frozen and lifeless. Tlie streams roll no more, 
Nor waters are, but stone. Tlie trees, tlie flowers. 
The grass — the very dew-drops crystallize 
And harden into rock. The winged winds 
Hang like dead eagles in the air. Its moon, 
Its stars, its sun, all stone. The dwellers there, 
Godlike in form and mien, like statues stand, 
Cold in the shadowy groves — alive within. 
Yet cased in adamantine panoply, for flesh." 
Much more he said, which dwelt not in my soul 
Distraught and slumbering. 

But this remains : 
I saw a host of angels sailing by. 
Freighting a barge of fire, round as the moon 
Kiding the dark blue sky at noon of night, 
Of winter night, through rocky seeming clouds. 
Snow white. They spoke, and I could hear them 

tell 
Of worlds, their mmistry, where thoughts sublime 
Lay on their shores, thick as the shells and sands 
On earth's sea-beaten beaches, where unwrought 
The quarries lie of genius infinite. 



THE GUAEDIAN A N G- E L . 65 

Here I awoke, nor ever niglit have passed 
Before or since, dream-liannted thus. The world 
Of spirits stood with gates wide open. How, 
Not so, when I, a mortal undivest of clay. 
Such converse held with beiags aeriform ? 
The soul hath warnings given, by day, by night. 
Which fit it for its future. 

But the morn 
Had dawned meanwhile, and rising from my couch 
I looked upon the Mississippi flood, 
Seeking its broadest prospect. The grand woods 
Seemed to take root in mists, the hill-tops shone 
Far in the orient, with the crimson light. 
Shot upward from the unseen source of day. 
The sun's broad orb looked o'er the horizon's edge 
Beaming hke hope upon a bed of death. 
Down flowed his rays o'er vale and forest green ; 
And in the river's face, as in a glass. 
His perfect orb lay mirrored. All around 
So fair, so tranquil, so serene, that earth 
Appeared a holy suburb of the sky, 
Fit lodging for the blest. 

My reverie 
The slave-boy broke : — all wild with agony 



66 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

He seized my hand and cried : " The orphan boy 
Is dying/' nor more said, but ran, but flew 
From out my presence. 

True it was, the boy, 
The orphan boy was dying. Pestilence 
Had breathed upon him as it passed. His face 
Was sunken with a tinge of livid blue, 
Like the dark azure of the mighty Ehone, 
When the cold moon lights up its waters. Cold 
And clammy was his little hand, nor pulse 
Was in 't. His eyes shone with unearthly light, 
Yet on the haggard features played a smile. 
As, with a husky voice, "' I know," he said, 
" That I am dying, mother told me so. 
Last night I dreamed she had me by the hand. 
Beside clear waters, where we sat us down 
And long communed. She told me she was now 
An angel, and with other angels lived 
r the heavens. Soon, my, father too was there ; 
But changed from what he was. Yet still I knew 
His figure coming, but the while I rose 
To meet him, a great spirit filled the place 
With his appearance, and it said, ' Not now. 
To-morrow.' Instantly I woke, — the morn 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 67 

Is come — to-morrow — happy I to die — 
Happy!" 

Brief was his death-pang. As a prayer 
Was offering for his soul, I saw his lips 
Cease moving, in default of farther strength 
For utterance, and his fringed eyelids fell 
Down o'er his eyes. Oh, could I but have seen 
His disembodied soul, when it beheld 
The retinue of angels waiting there 
To bear it up to glory, and relate 
The marvellous raptures of that hour of change. 
Immortal then would be my numbers. 

The ritual of burial, nor long 

The eulogy by that gray-headed sage 

Pronounced : — 

" The grave is full of hands which toiled ; 
Of tongues which uttered words that cannot die ; 
Of ears to softest music tuned ; of hearts 
All hallowed as the shrine of love ; of heads 
Garnered with wisdom ; feet which o'er the roads, 
The weary roads of earth have walked long years ; 
Of faces beautiful as angels ; now 
Another trophy hath it won ; nor hath 



68 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

In its dark halls been hid more sacred dust 
Than this we leave alone ; nor all alone^ 
For aye near this, amid the pathless woods, 
Angels shall vigil keep. Nor can we doubt 
His soul could now he seen, if it were given 
To mortals to behold the soul unhoused, 
Shining with lustrous light in the serene 
Of heaven, beside his mother's, as we see 
Full oft in the blue sky, together set, 
The moon and morning-star, ere peep of day, 
In kindred loveliness.'' 

Our toiling barque 
Moved on, and left the orphan sleeping there 
By the great river. Silence, solemn, deep 
And dreadful brooded over us. Friend spake 
To friend in whispers. Here and there were seen. 
At times throughout the day, the passengers 
In groups ; but oftener alone they walked, 
Or stood, or sat ; each with his thoughts alone : 
As when a thunder storm is on the wing. 
Or earthquake trembleth near, all, all is calm, 
Preluding strange convulsion ; so we felt. 
The sultry day its long, dull, leaden hours 
Dragged on, till the great yellow sickly sun 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 69 

Began to redden in the west, and cast 
His lurid glare o'er all the forest scene. 
One came and said to me : " It is not grief 
Hath kept the slave-boy on his couch all day, 
But the dread plague." 

He lay upon that verge 
Which overlooks eternity. As oft 
A star at morning, seen upon the peak 
Of Chimhorazo, which retires behind 
That mountain suddenly, so did he look. 
Delirium lit his glassy eyes with thoughts, 
Apt for a higher being. Fised, they shone 
As marking some great spectacle, to which 
His finger pointed. Aye his lips he moved. 
Like one borne on the stream of eloquence. 
At intervals, bright gleams of gladness spread 
O'er all his face, like light upon the hills, 
When the sun breaks through fleecy summer clouds, 
Which float like islands in the azure sky. 
Perchance angelic embassies he sav/ 
Waiting to carry him away to heaven. 
As one v^^ho sudden leaves the crowded hall 
Of his own dwelling, nor his sorrowing house 
Revisits more ; so he, an instant more, 



TO THE aUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

And on his lips was stamped Death's signet pale. 

Ere long the fatal summons once again 
Was sounded, and another answered it. 
'Twas whispered that the widow, too, was dead. 
Even as a taper's light quenched suddenly 
At gusty midnight, so her soul had passed 
From its earth-lamp. Deep gloom fell over us — 
And darker shadow spread its sable wing 
Around ; as when the full-orhed moon retires 
Behind the western hill, and leaves the vales 
To the dim lustre of the far-off stars. 

Her dying words were few ; as one who heard 
Beside her couch related. From her sleep 
She woke, as morn dawned in the east, and said : 
" The while I slept I heard the sounding wings 
Of angel couriers hastening to the earth 
From heaven — I saw — I saw my Lord, deceased, 
Stand in the clouds, and beckon me from far 
To meet him there, whereat I knew the hour 
Of death not distant. — For although unseen, 
'Twas palpable to my enraptured soul 
Prophetical. My dream was more than dream ; 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Yl 

No vision of the future e'er portrayed 
That future clearer, truer than it did. 
Awake, I see its wondrous scenery still, 
And feel its mystic meanings." 

Suddenly 
She stopped, as if an angel gave the word — 
The great pass-word of Death — one instant more, 
And the death mystery invested her 
With death's supremacy. 

Near Genevieve 
Upon a lonely islet green, o'er which 
An ancient spreading tree its shadow flung 
In the cool evening ; quiet, beautiful, 
Most beautiful to see was all the scene 
Around. The river's rocky palisades. 
By nature wrought with arcs and grand alcoves, 
As if the spirits of the wilderness. 
In the primeval ages, from the crags 
Had scooped them giant niches meet to hold 
Their own colossal statues, loomed aloft. 
Befitting was the isle for sepulture 
Of those we love ; there both we buried. 
The slave-boy and the widow. 

Near the prow 



Y2 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

We sat again, Albert and I : there sat 

The old man too. Day now around us shone 

And not the moon, as when the other three 

Communed with us of dreams — the orphan hoy, 

The slave and widow. I remember this 

Of our converse that hour, — 'twas Albert spoke : 

" Dreams are," he said, " a mystery profound. 

Which ever have enchained my secret soul 

With deepest wonder. Who can tell but dreams 

Are creatures of some other universe. 

Which no astronomer with optic glass 

Has yet explored, in which the hand of God 

Has mapped out each man's history ; has mapped 

out 
The history of all the hierarchies ? 
Each dream might be a part of a great whole ; 
A section of our history sublime, 
Far reaching, but unknown till thus beheld 
In visions of the night. Wer 't so, the soul 
Might then, whene'er the body slept, its eyes 
Of sense all shut, look out beyond this world 
Into this universe of dreams, and read 
And study out its destiny on earth. 
'Tis true God is the sole interpreter 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. To 

Of dreams ; and yet his teacliings by them, clear, 
Might evermore fall silent on the sonl. 
As dew upon the tender flower. 

" Till now. 
Ne'er did I feel the wondrous things in dreams 
Set forth. Not voice of trumpet sudden blown 
At midnight, in some leaguered city, tells, 
More truly, peril imminent, than the dreams 
We heard, so lately, told of great events 
Not earthly all. The universe of dreams 
Has oped its portals wide, and out have flown 
Its tribes like flocks of eagles. Who could think 
The dreams rehearsed, were like to couriers 
Commissioned in the secret halls of Grod, 
Laden with revelations, grand, sublime, 
Foreshadowing ftlturity, and soon 
To be accomplished here, our eyes before." 

" Conscious am I," the white-haired answering said, 
" That to the meditative warnings oft 
Of future things are given, that the soul 
Forewarned, sees darkly, through the mists of time, 
The coming fortunes, be they evil or good. 
Which may befall it. Signs the future hath. 



Y4 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Outriders, like tlie wiiiged liglitning's flash, 

WMcli heralds the far thunder ere it rolls. 

Such signs are dreams, it may be, nor doubt I, 

The shadows of events they run before, 

Presaging what shall follow, on the road, 

To warn the dreamer. Thus full oft have I, 

At day's high noon when musing, sudden felt 

My mind stirred by some thought electrical. 

Most strange, and unconnected with the train 

Of casual meditations, fancy free, 

Which filled my bosom ere uncalled it came, 

To tell the coming accident, which soon 

Arose from out the darkling womb of time 

To satisfy the monitory thought. 

'Tis true the future has been seen from earth, 

Up from the distance, like to chariots borne 

Amid deep passes of the Alps, beheld 

By traveller from some topmost mountain peak. 

'Tis certain there is near the erring earth 
A mighty world of dreams, to which in sleep 
Men pilgrimages make : above that world 
Of visions, other worlds there are more fit 
For habitations of celestial shapes. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 75 

One world of beauty is invisible, 
Most blessed and most holy, made of old 
And consecrate, for everlasting homes 
To men redeemed, and sinless hierarchies. 
Between it and the erring earth flows on 
Unceasing intercourse : bright couriers 
Aye come and go between them ; and, albeit 
It is not given too much for mortal man 
To speculate on what that world may be, 
Yet dreams of holy men may adumbrate 
Its glories, and God's finger ever points 
Its presence, in each page of Holy Writ, 
That faith, not sense, can see it. 

Thence I pass 
Unsung, what farther fell, as on we sped. 
Skimming the shallows of the mighty flood. 
Though meetest theme for minstrelsy. We reached 
The shores of Iowa, and stepped astrand 
On the green hiUocli, as the evening star 
Kose in the sky, shining lil?:e hope, to cheer 
And welcome us. 

No numbers hath the harp 
To sing the meeting of the lovers ; and 'tis well : 
There is a joy too sacred to be told — 



76 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Art cannot picture it. — The sculptor's hand. 
Shrouds with the veil what all his skill divine 
Must fail to render. 

'Tis the nuptial night ; 
And though dark years, disastrous years, their robes 
Have trailed across the tract which intervenes ; 
Yet fresh in memory it is. I feel, 
The while I write, stirred with its presence — nay, 
I hear the music filling all the place 
With love and joy and witcheries. The veil, 
The bridal veil half hides the fairy form 
Of beauty leaning on that manly arm. 
What silence solemn and profound is this ! 
The vows are uttered — those great words which live 
Forever. 

It was midnight when I left 
That banquet hall with memories fraught. 
The boat awaited me beside thy shore. 
Dark Mississippi. Soon the plash of oars 
Was heard, and I was launched upon the stream. 
The night was calm and beautiful — the stars 
Sat on their burning thrones of sapphire, like 
A dynasty of kings. The silver moon 
Was setting, and her light, her lustrous light 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 77 

Bewitched the scenery, and cast o'er all 

A beauty which no words can paint. The bluff 

Of Iowa, though from my gaze fasL fast 

Keceding, showed the bridal mansion's light 

Gleaming alone, from out its shadowy trees 

By the broad river. Memory recalls 

That tranquil scene — the terraces I see, — 

The green acclivities of Iowa — 

The lighted mansion bright with brilliant hopes. 

I seem to hear the minstrelsy's soft swell, 

As angel whispers o'er the waters borne, 

Though years have rolled away, and all is changed. 

Myself not less than all, since that fair night, 

When last I looked upon those scenes sublime, 

Nor ever saw that wedded pair again. 



BOOK SECOND. 

THE DKEAM OF ALBEET 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 



BOOK SECOND, 



'Tis well Niagara is the joint domain 
Of the great Saxon empires of the world, 
America and England. Heritage 
Becoming two such kindred nations, dame 
And daughter. 

Three years since, at noon, I stood 
Upon the rocky verge which overlooks 
The cataract and the Canadian shores. 
I felt the solid battlement of rock 
Quiver beneath my feet, as if the cars 
Of God drove down the precipice. The yeast 
O'er all that semicirque of waters, boiled 
Like caldron over subterranean fires^ 
Kindled when earth was fluid. Hidden rocks 

Vexed evermore the waters, dashing them 

4* 



82 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

From side to side. Like living creatures seemed 
The surges^ wHcli nor day nor night could rest. 
I likened them to ocean monsters^ seen 
In storms by mariners ; at other times 
To the white tails of the celestial steeds 
In ancient history writ. The mighty chasm 
Yawned in the strength of everlasting rock, 
As though Grod's hand had smote it, as it smote 
That rock in Horeb, and the waters turned 
To burst from it forever. On the sides 
Of the dread walls clung many a shrub and tree 
Hiding the rents and crevices. Eocks huge 
As those used erst in dread angelic war 
By Milton sung, lay scattered far and near, 
Slimy and black with ages passed away. 
The place was as a vision seen in dreams, 
Not earthly. 

Wondrous was the light and shade 
Which flitted o'er the gulf. Is it the wings 
Of eagles floating past the sun, which cast 
The long black shadows evermore athwart 
That scene of glory ? Clouds scarce fly so swift : 
Or may it be the pinions, to our eyes 
Invisible,' athwart the noonday sun 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 83 

Of angels sailing, wMch shut out tlie rays 
Flooding the world with light. — Uprose anon 
Pillars of misty smoke, upswallowing all. 
And straight evanishing. Bright rainbows shone 
As sudden spanning all the wide abyss. 
Then, disappearing. Beautiful they shone, 
And came and. passed away too fast, as aye 
The holy angels do. There was no sound 
Heard there but the eternal roar and rush 
Of the great flood, " as many waters heard " 
Erewhile, by him listening to God. When gloomed 
The place with awful clouds of smoke, I felt 
That then the Holy God of nature passed 
I' the cloud of mist before me. 

All sublime, 
All beautiful is but a state of mind. 
Sublimity and beauty are within, 
Not things external. What is the ravine. 
The cataract, but for the mind, which gives 
To each sublimity. We animate 
The object with our feelings. What the charms 
Of loveliest forms, but that our eyes and mind 
Eeflect themselves, the sense of what they give. 
Association aye embellishes. 



84 THE GUARDIANANGEL. 

And makes delight in -beauty. Beauty lives 
In our own minds^ and is itself the growth 
Of that which is within us, not without. 

All who behold the mighty cataract 

Must see, must feel it diverse. Most the bard 

Of all beholders, for his soul instinct 

With thoughts remote and kindred, peoples it 

With his own beings. Every changeful play 

Of light and shade and mist inspireth him. 

New images arise before his soul, 

And pictures, whence to measure it. . The bard 

Potent creator is, and giveth life 

To rocks and trees and streams and gulfs. His 

eye 
Sees things unseen by other eyes. — He hears 
The hidden voices of great nature. 

So 
The man of God that cataract surveys 
With feelings diverse from the bard. To him, 
" The voice of many waters " is the voice 
Of God. The scenery carrieth him from earth 
Into eternity. The imagery 
By which he measures it is not of earth. 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 85 

Lake Erie filling up Ontario, 

Kemindeth him of one eternity 

Into another poured, or time's huge stream 

Of years discharged into the ocean gulf 

Of the dread shoreless future. Sight sublime 

Those white-maned rapids, like the steeds which 

bore 
The prophet heavenward, in Israel's cars : 
The ceaseless thunderings of the cataract, 
The roar of their great wheels, ascending aye 
The mountains of Eternity. The bows 
Across the vast abysm are arches fair — 
Celestial bridges for the angels built. 
The mists are God's earthrobes — the place itself, 
The vestibule of the eternal state — 
The dwelling of Jehovah — thus I felt, 
As I stood musing on a summer day. 
Contemplating the varied scenery : — 
The islands anchored fast above the Falls — 
The rush of waters hke Euphrates poured 
Through Naharmalca — the stupendous leap 
Of the huge river— -and the rapids, wild 
Like chargers, rushing o'er the precipice ; 
Or troops of angels on white horses, which 



86 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Stayed not for danger — ^rainbows numberless 
Ever appearing and evanislimg: — 
The trees in silence listening tliere, like seers 
Awaiting revelations — and tbe rocks 
Up-piled around me and above, in one 
Huge picture ;— angel presences, metbought, 
Alone were wanting, to exalt tlie place 
Into the glorious portal opened wide 
Of all eternities ; eternity 
Present and Past and Future. 

Suddenly 
I was alone no longer ; strangers stood 
Beside me, yet not strangers all. The one 
Had hoary hairs and venerable form ; 
A striphng showed the other ; sire and son 
They were. The sire was even he, from whom 
I parted, erewhile, on the nuptial night 
In Iowa. That instant memory brought 
Back to my soul, like necromancer old. 
All the events of the long parted, time 
Vivid and fresh, the interval of years 
Contracted to a day. 

Our greeting o'er. 
We stood upon a wooded knoll, where full 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 87 

We saw tlie vast abyss of waters wild, 
Surging "below, and howling like tlie sea 
Of everlasting wrath. The lad cried out 
As he beheld the scene, — " Now, I believe, 
This is one spot of earth unmarred by man. 
One nook of the primeval world, as first 
Fashioned by God. These seem the waters white 
And yeasty, which from out the shell of earth 
Spouted new-made ; — these spray drops, those 

which fell 
From off the eaves of the new firmament. 
Yet moist from its creation, ere the sun 
Sent down his light and heat. Perchance these 

bows 
Are beings of celestial birth and form — 
The presences of the angelic hosts, 
August, gigantic, fair, who shouting stood, 
What time God made the worlds ; still hngering 

here 
Amid the scene, unwilling to forsake 
The relics of creation's morn." 

His sire 
Took up the theme and said : " In this vast scene 
God is made visible to us : God thought it all, 



bb THE G-UAKDIAN ANGEL. 

In His great mind, in the eternity 
Bygone. The cataract — the battlements 
Of fissured rocks, all gray and rent with years — 
The wooded isles, dark spray, and rainbows bright, 
Spanning the old abyss, were thought, erewhile, 
Deep lodged and hid in the Almighty mind, 
Matter is thought incarnate, thought divine. 
The seas with all their hosts, the woods with all 
Their tribes, the rivers singing through the woods, 
The wild ravines, the unseen winged winds. 
Which nestle in the tops of trees, and haunt 
The precipices drear by ocean strand : 
The stars, the moon, the sun, man, heaven itself. 
With aU its mysteries, are but thoughts of Grod. 
Niagara is one sentence in the book 
Of nature, rich in meaning ; beautiful. 
Sublime and glorious ; but the Scriptures keep 
More blessed thoughts. Niagara cannot tell 
Of love, and grace, and mercy from of old 
Hidden in the Almighty mind." 

" The place," 
I said, " is ever holy unto me. 
I also feel as if God's presence gave 
The scenery its strange and awful power. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 89 

It is not more than one short step from this, 

The spot we stand on, to eternity. 

One leap would make immortals of us all. 

As we behold it thoughts arise, which speak 

The greatness of our nature. Thoughts like these 

I ever have, when mid ancestral halls ; 

Or lonely lingering at the fabled haunts 

Of bards, where float the visions of their songs ; 

Or standing near the ruins of old fanes 

Festooned with ivy ; or by sepulchres 

Shrining the dust of martyrs, whose great acts 

Perish not from the earth ; or keeping watch 

Beside the dying. Ever in the soul 

Surges the sea of everliving thought. 

Pulsating ever to and fro. The waves 

Upon this sea, its tides, its calms, its storms, 

Its currents — all are thoughts. This very scene. 

All glorious as it is, and truly grand, 

Eeceives new glory, grows the more sublime. 

Invested by the soul's creative will 

With wonders not its own.'' 

Awhile we stood, 
We gazed, we mused in silence, and our thoughts, 
Like plumes plucked from archangel's wings, went oui 



90 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Into the infinite. I tliought of God, 
And asked myself^ if all around I saw 
Was sliadow, while all underlying it 
Was substance. 

Not remote a height there is, 
O'erlooking all the cataract. Tall trees, 
Whose branching tops embraced and hid the sun, 
A semicirque had formed, like columns vast. 
The nave of some antique cathedral. Here 
A rustic seat invites the traveller 
To sit, and all the panorama grasp 
In his enraptured soul. We sat us down, 
And gazed, enwrapt in awe. 

One mighty tree, 
Upon the verge of the overlooking rock, 
Our eyes attracted, for its trunk was scored 
With names of travellers, like a column carved 
With mystic hieroglyphs all o'er and o'er. 
Wrought in the characters of olden time, 
Albert's conspicuous was. The youth, whose love 
Had drawn me, to behold his bridal rite, 
Beyond the sounding Mississippi's flood. 
At once outspoke the aged man, and said : 
"Albert these letters graved,- one early morn 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 91 

Three summers since. Strangers we were, nor me 
Did lie observe^ so deep intent he was 
On this memorial. That night we met 
Upon the Mississippi made us friends 
Through all eternity's uhreckoned years. 
And if the souls of friends gone off to God 
Revisit earth, his soul is here, e'en how." 
I answering said : " Albert I know is dead, 
But of his dying views, and hopes, and death, 
Naught have I heard." 

" Most glorious was this death," 
Replied the traveller. — " Much converse we held 
Beside his death-bed. Long he lingered low^ 
Nor walked abroad in the rejoicing day, 
But in his chamber sat communing much 
With Grod. Great were the thoughts which sat 

them down, 
Like kings, upon the throne of his pure mind. 
Oft spake he of his death, and interviews 
"With angels in the visions of the night.'* 

" The memory of holy friends," I said, 

" Is ever fragrant, and the narrative 

Of his last thoughts and feelings on the earth, 



92 THE GTJAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Would be as blessed incense to my soul. 
Nor could there be a place more fit than this 
For such discourse." 

As holy pilgrim bent 
On travel, to remotest lands of earth, 
Who lingers not to gaze on beauty's face ; 
Nor parley hold with travellers whom he meets ; 
Or, as an angel sent to earth, by God, 
With errand from the throne, so he began : — 

" 'Twas midnight, and by Albert's bed I sat : 
Startling he woke from wondrous dreams, and told 
Straightway their import — ' In my thought,' 

said he, 
' I was alone, far from my native world. 
Standing upon a precipice abrupt, 
O'erhanging an abyss. Beneath, there rolled 
An ocean, whose huge billows ever dashed 
And broke to pieces on the jutting rocks. 
I looked on every side, but no one saw. 
There was not one memorial there of earth ; 
No work of art, no footprint left to tell 
If e'er before one of my mortal race 
Had visited the battlement sublime. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 93 

Instead of worlds afloat, the firmament. 
I saw "beneath, as in a crystal lake, 
Studding it, planets and suns innumerous. 
The place was beautiful, unearthly all. 

' Strange were the varied scenes I saw ; they came 
And passed like the white vapory cloud of mist, 
Oft seen by traveller on the hills of earth. 
When winged storms come flying from the sea. 
Now, 'twas a battlefield, where heroes closed 
In deadly conflict ; now a shoreless sea. 
Where sailed tall argosies bedight and trip 
With sails and pennons streaming. Instantly 
I saw cathedrals rising all around — 
These disappeared, and glens and waterfalls. 
And toppling mountains rose to view. I saw 
Distinct the effigies of ages rush 
Athwart the firmament, as figures fleet 
Across the boreal sky. 

' Ere I had time 
To reason of the place, and the strange scenes. 
An angel suddenly flashed into form ; 
Of eminence beyond the height of man. 
No airs of angel greatness put he on. 



94: THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Saluting me — as brother brotlier greets, 
From foreign land arrived, absent long years — 
Then said : " Hail, brother, welcome to the world 
Of holy dreams ; a world which lies thine own 
And mine between, a world where Grod himself 
To mortals future things reveals, and sights 
Of angels gives. 

" I know thee well, son 
Of earth. Oft have I met thee in this land 
Of dreams and mysteries ; and visions borne 
From God, all sinless, beautiful and full 
Of hope, as scenery spread out along 
The stream of life. The shadow followeth not 
The body closer than do I thy steps, 
E'er since thou hadst a being, ministering 
Alway to thee. I ne'er have left thee once. 
E'en in thy sleep, but vigil ever kept 
Beside thee. Earthly matron could not hold 
Such ceaseless watch. Upon the beetling cliff, 
Where youthful travel took thee, there I stood 
Between thee and the deep abyss below. 
Beside the banks of rivers, where the love 
Of nature carried thee, I always walked, 
Tending thee. When the star of love arose 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 95 

On thj young heart, 'twas I who whispered hope 

Into thine ear. Thine agony of soul, 

When sin and grace for mastery o'er thee 

Contended, I heheld and pitied much. 

What hour you knelt before the mercy-seat, 

I covered you with my celestial wings. 

ISTor all my joy can I relate, as still 

I saw the gathering thoughts of love divine. 

E'en as a child upon the ocean shore 

G-athers white pebbles." 

' Now, an instant here 
The angel paused, then I — " Hierarch of God, 
I feel in some great presence, greater far 
Than aught of earth. It seems to me thy face 
In dreams hath met me often. Pass not then 
Away so soon from me, as thou art wont ; 
But linger here and of thy history speak. 
The distant memories of buried years 
Are flocking round me, like a winged plump 
Of eagles, at thy words, and my heart throbs 
In wild anticipation, for thou seem'st 
A messenger from God with tidings high 
Of mightiest import laden, — can it be 
I am akin to thee ? — strange is thy speech, 



96 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

For how should I a miglity angel liave 
Asleep or waking ? " 

' Then replied at once 
This angel of the Lord : " Earthborn, of kin 
To thee I am, and formed for thee alone. 
Thy Guardian Angel I, — to every soul 
Is one^ — great ofl&ce too. Thy mortal steps 
To tend, for evermore was I ordained. 
Ages ere thou wert born I lived, and none 
But God can tell how much I longed for thy 
Coming. I sought at every morn and eve 
The dial of eternity, and traced 
The shortening shadows of approaching years 
Which heralded thy advent. 

" On the tree 
Of Being, every opemng bud I watched. 
Scarce from impatience could I hold, to see 
The earlier generations of thy race. 
Washed up on the young strand of earth, like 

barks 
New launched on summer seas ; and hear the 

shout 
Of welcome from their guardian angels, glad 
To meet them. Never canst thou know the years 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 97 

Of solitude, the slow-paced centuries 

I passed alone in thought, awaiting thee : 

For what were all the worlds of Grod to me, 

And all the white-winged countless hierarchies, 

Without thy presence ! Fitting mate for me 

None was, tiQ God made thee. The image fair 

Of thee, all uncreate, within my soul 

Stood ever forward, from the very morn 

Of my own being, and allured me o'er 

The gulf of ages, a great shoreless sea. 

Between thy birth and mine. Beyond all words 

To tell were my emotions, when I saw 

Thy birthday breaking in the orient sky. 

And heard the trumpet of Eternity 

Declare thy advent. Beautiful thou wert, 

Swaddled in mysteries and destinies. 

I saw thee take thy place among the ranks 

Of mortals ; immortality thy dower. 

Earth seemed that instant other world, thou erst 

Fairer than aught in the vast universe 

Yet visited by me. Thou art mine own 

Ordained ward. No mother ever loved 

As I love thee, nor sire, nor maiden fair 

Nurtured amid the dewy wilderness, 



98 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Where only flowers and brooks, and "banks and braes 

Are seen, and God's own boly voice is beard. 

For sovereignty o'er all the souls create, 

And angels, would not I my charge exchange 

Of alway ministering to thee — espoused 

"We are by Grod for all eternity. 

Nor would I injure thee, for the vast dower 

Of seven eternities. Nor God ordains 

That angel innocent, of all his host. 

Who renders not account for soul of man 

To him intrusted. Penalty for that 

Is utter loss of being. If perchance 

I could apostate turn, and cheat thy faith 

With falsehood, instant cast beyond the verge 

Of all created worlds, a thing accurst, 

I there should moulder ; not like garden weeds. 

Or tares or fumatory rank, uptorn from earth. 

To vegetate again, and bring forth crops 

Of ranker, fouler weeds ; but utterly 

Outside creation, in a grave dug deep 

For angels dead, where resurrection morn 

Ne'er comes. Such is that angel's fate who fails 

In duty. Oh most terrible the thought 

Unuttered is. I live for thee alone — 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 99 

Without tliy presence ever by my side, 
My immortality and destiny 
Would be a dreary wilderness of thought : 
Of bliss, and hope, and beauty, destitute/' 

' The angel waited here, with pause profound ; 
Thence I : — " My Guardian Angel, if, in years 
Gone by, thou hadst vouchsafed thyself as now, 
How beautiful and fresh would earth have been : 
To feel, to know thou walkedst by my side 
O'er the steep mountain, through the summer 

woods, 
Adown the winding glen, and by the beach 
Of the Atlantic, where I mused alone 
What time the stars were bathing, and what time 
The billows rode like chargers o'er the sands, 
The howling winds pursuing them as fleet : 
To think thou wert within my cottage home 
Through gloomy winter's snowy, starless nights, 
Unseen, unheard, an exUe from the sky, 
And ministering to me, to me alone. 
Why didst thou not reveal thyself to us ? 
My mother would have welcomed thee, and given 
Befitting honor to thy ministry. 



100 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Her angel too, — to tliink we never heard 

Yon "wHsper. Had we known sucli visitants 

Were ever with, us, and no dwelling had 

Celestial, and of architecture fit 

For beings so divine, we would have sought 

In prayer heartfelt, the Throne of God, to huild 

You tents in our near neighborhood. One spot 

There was beside the brook, a grove most rich 

In branching trees, and winding walks, and flowers, 

And ivy, and sweet eglantine, where oft 

I mused, and thought 'twas fitting place for spirits. 

On errand from the sky, to stoop and pause. 

Thou couldst have lodged by day, by night, and aye 

In our devotions joined : nay, taught us too 

The airs of minstrel angels. Pity 'tis 

Thy ministry was hidden from our eyes. 

As hidden as the mysteries of life 

In life's young morn. Thy history is full 

Of beauty, fuller than all tales of love 

E'er heard before : it lifteth my young thoughts 

Above the earth. If it be given thee more 

To utter of thyself, oh ! tell to me that — 

Impatient more to learn." 

". My history," 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 101 

Answered my angel, " to antiquity, 

BelbiG the stars arose and sang, goes back ; 

Long, long before tbe brood of worlds was batched ; 

And ere the seeds of the vast planets fell 

Into the soil of time, and there took root : 

Myriads of ages ere the central suns. 

Amid these families of orbs, their vast 

Abysmal urns filled up with teeming years : 

And ere the earth, the erring star of God, 

Was aught but an idea in his mind. 

" My memory is immortal, nor from it 

Can drop one thought : forgetfulness is all 

Unknown to spiritual beings. When arose 

The angel tribes at God's creating voice, 

I too. Eternity until that hour 

Was empty — none but God was there. I was. 

When I awoke to being, as I am. 

And have been since, save the- ideas vast 

Gathered by travelling through the universe : 

I felt I was a thing of thought God made 

To live forever, and to minister 

To thee forever and for aye. 



102 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

" An arch. 
Standing upon the buttresses sublime, 
Of two eternities I saw — the thing 
First seen by me, and with a countless host 
Of beings like myself its shining height 
Ascending. I alone had reached and stood 
Upon the keystone, backward looking. 

" Next 
I saw, no voice was heard in all the place, 
The Spirit of Eternity go forth 
Amid Eternity, seed scattering. 
Like husbandman in thine own earth-world, when 
Springtide hath come. 

" "When I did look again. 
Ages, or what seemed ages, had passed by. 
And where the seed was sown, the stars and moons 
And suns were growing. 

" Last of all, I saw 
The earth, thy home-world, take its place, amid 
The firmament, when instantly a shout 
Of joy arose from the great family 
Of angels. 

" Since that ancient day of time, 
Travel hath carried me away 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 103 

Into remotest worlds, whicli none 

Had visited, of all my myriad hosts : 

Into the wildernesses drear and lone, 

Around the poles of the great Tiniverse, 

Unfit for dwelhng places, have I gone. 

Stars growing aU along the millry-way 

Visited. On the alpine peaks of worlds 

Which never can be trod by human feet 

Stood. Through the gardens and the groves 

Of sinless worlds, the heritage divine, 

Ordained for souls elect, when they shall go 

Away from heaven to meditate on earth 

Their nature world, roamed have I, glad, glad — 

Musing, and holding intercourse with Grod, have I 

Spent centuries in highest heaven itself. 

Still wondrous interest ever has thy world 

To me. There is no cloudy mountain-top. 

Nor hidden glen found out by streamlet clear, 

Eunning with music in its heart, from morn 

To eve ; nor grove, with old ancestral trees, 

And lawns, forever consecrate to love 

And minstrelsy ; nor castellated rocks. 

To memories of olden time espoused ; 

Nor upland lake, sequestered 'mong the hills, 



104: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Where clouds deliglit to dwell, have I not been. 
But more anon " — Then paused. 

' Here out I spake 
Unto the angel, saying : " Holy one, 
Thy history most glorious is, replete 
With the antiquities of time and earth. 
Thy memory goeth back beyond the faU 
Of angels from their heavenly thrones. Though dire 
Their story, and disastrous to my race, 
New view of God it would unfold to me, 
If told." 

" This much may I unfold to thee," he said. 
" The sun of man's first Sabbath on thy world 
Had set all glorious, as the sunsets were. 
Ere yet the black angel, sin, trailed his robe 
O'er the blest earth. There was no angel left 
Around the great white throne, save those bright 

hosts 
W^ho never leave its shining steps. We all 
Had gone to our appointed posts amid 
Immensity. Some stood upon the walls 
Of heaven ; some to the distant stars and suns 
Yigil had gone to keep ; but many more 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 105 

On pilgrimages to these worlds, to see 

Their seas, and streams, and hills, and woods and 

lakes — 
The haunts where angels in the mighty past 
Had travelled. Some beside the sea of glass 
Stood gazing on the suns bemirrored there. 
Some stood alone, in meditation deep 
On the tall hills of bliss. Some sat and talked 
Within the bowers which skirt the crystal sea ; 
Some wrote their thoughts in books ; some min- 
strelsy 
Achieved ; some with the Almighty One 
Communion held. Upon the Atlantic strand 
Of earth, I walked alone, absorbed, and rapt 
In vision, questioning the future, when 
Thou too shouldst, musing, wander there. 

" My dream 
Was broken by the awful trump of Grod — 
The trumpet of eternity, whose blast 
Shook all the universe. Portentous was 
That clangor ; ne'er before had its dread voice 
Been heard since time created was. 
Thrice blown, its summons every angel heard, 

And sudden hasted to the mount of God. 
5* 



106 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

As I passed through, the firmament of earth, 

On rapid, rapid pinion, fleet as thought, 

The road and highways of immensity 

Were filled with angels on the wing. Nor long 

Till we the everlasting valley reached. 

Outspread on each side round the awful mount 

Of the Eternal — there the synod met, 

The synod of the angels : thither rushed. 

As rush at times the thoughts of myriads 

Of men, into the opened ear of God, 

When yawning earthquakes frighten them. Great 

was 
The number of the shining angels there 
Before the throne, obedient to the call 
Of God. Like a great noiseless sea were we : 
Upon the very pillars of the throne 
Some leaned, and I upon the steps. 

" The mount 
Itself was hidden in a cloud of light. 
Of lustrous light, intensely clear, which shut 
From every eye the throne. No more we saw 
Beyond the steps ascending, and the lamps. 
The mystic lamps around them. 

" Suddenly 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 107 

That aTgent shining cloud was rolled away 

From off the mountain, and we saw the throne, 

And One on it human in form. Nor e'er 

Before such sight had been beheld, or felt, of eyes 

Angelic even — nor that presence of Grod 

Erst been made manifest. Desire intense. 

And aspirations had been nursed, sublime, 

Since first we were, that wondrous brightness through 

To pierce, and find some outlines shadowing Him : 

And yet to us that wish, o'erbold perchance, 

Had been vouchsafed not. True, we could not 

brook 
To see infinitude, and yet we wished that God 
Would nearer come to us ; and in our form 
Be seen for briefest instant. Now that wish 
Had answer, but the form he took was man. 
Not angel. 

" Mighty the emotion was 
Of every spirit, in that vast conclave 
At sight of God. Upon his head blazed out 
The diadem of dread eternity, 
And in his hand the sceptre. On the throne 
There lay the opened volume of decrees, 
Old as eternity itself. Above 



108 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

His crowned head, the how of mercy hung, 
And at his feet, like angel sleeping, lay- 
Justice Bterne. No word was uttered there. 
Speechless we stood, and gazed, and marvelled long, 
Af Godhead visible, 

" The mystery soon 
Of Inspiration, like a cloud overcame 
Us, as we gazed, and fitted us to hear. 
The trumpet spoke again, twice, thrice — the trump 
We heard erewhile. Then fell these awful words 
Upon our ears, the words from out the throne,- 
The grand white throne. 

" ' Intelligences first 
And highest in the scale of being— hear : 
Your chiefest angel, and his chosen peers. 
No more shall sit upon their vacant thrones. 
Scarce had ye left the battlements what time 
The evening anthem ceased, when he, unbid. 
The secret chamber of eternity 
Entered, infringing on its mystery ; 
The prophecy he read of his own fall, 
And of his own estate forfeit to man — 
I' the future born, new-born, on earth's young star. 
No more he learned, but fled with hasty foot, 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 109 

And told his listening peers, wlio not rebuked 
His treason : instant down lie fell from heaven : 
Such, fate befell them all. But fear not ye — 
Powers, Principalities, for treason here 
No more shall enter in — elect are ye, 
InfalHble.' 

" No word, angel returned 
To Him upon the throne, for holy awe 
Constrained us — awe, that black apostasy 
Had crept into the citadel hard by. 
The seat of God. Nor had he ceased to speak 
Ere the broad glory closed around the mount, 
And hid him from our eyes, 

" While we stood 
In silence musing, suddenly a sound 
Was heard, as if of messenger august 
Approaching, who, from distant world came on 
With urgent tidings, of most high import. 
Then louder woke the trumpet's blasts. At once 
We saw the angel of the earth ahght, 
Before the veiled throne. His tidings were 
Awful, and tingled in our ears, like some 
Death message. Audience instantly had he 



110 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

From God "withm the veil. These were the words 
He spake : 

" ' Sire of Eternity, the Earth, 
Thy youngest child, is lost. The spirit of sin 
Hath rapt it from us. All around its coasts 
Angels are stationed, till I shall return. 
Forbidding all egress to the exiled 
From heaven. The glorious man that sat its throne 
And his fair mate no more are sovereign there : 
He too has been discrowned, and down the slope 
Of ruin rushes. By the guarded gate 
Of Paradise, I left him sitting, low * 

At his feet, a suppliant, lay his spouse 
Despoiled of all her beauty. Intercourse 
Between that star, and all the sisterhood 
Of worlds, is closed. Naught heard I when I left 
But the terrific wail of man, and the shouts 
Of the apostate angels.' Thus spake he. 
The angel of the earth, and waited mute 
God's answer. 

" Fast as thought lights up the mind, 
So rent the veil of glory, and he spake 
Again, the Great Invisible from out 
The mystic throne : 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. Ill 

" ' Son of the morning, Son 
Of light and truth, the loss of earth, and fall 
Of man, is written fuE. in the decrees 
And secrets of eternity. This too 
Is written, angels shall apostatize, 
Nor e'er be reinstated — Justice must 
Her symbol have. Of man it is not so : 
He may redeemed be, and so redeemed. 
Our Mercy to all time shall symbolize. 
The earth-star hath a destiny more grand 
Than all her sister spheres. Myself its soil 
Will tread in sorrow ; and at my advent, 
Horror that time shall shudder at, and earth 
Be riven ; joy, that shall make angels weep 
Shall succeed and surcrease. For erring man 
The ocean of eternal love is stirred 
To its unfathomable, ancient depths. 
But for the angels mercy never pleads. 
The earth shall be ennobled ; angels too, 
Who endure sinless, shall their destinies have 
With man's enlinked." 

I thought the angel's voice 
Trembled on uttering these mysterious words. 
A cloud, too, passed athwart his face — the words 



112 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

The while went echoing through my throbbing 

heart. 
When fitting pause was o'er, soon as I saw 
The angel's musing cease, I ventured this 
To say : — 

" Brother divine, thou knowest all I ask, 
And more ; imperisbable are thy words 
As blossoms on the tree of life, replete 
With beauty and with life. Oft have I sighed 
For tidings of my sire, and mother dear 
In heaven : a child was I, when angels came 
For father, and him took to dwell with them 
In their celestial world. Orphans we were, 
I and my sisters too ; I eldest, they 
Younger : we three but children under five. 
The morn I was an orphan, my grand-dame 
Me took to gaze upon his face, and said — 
I, silent, wondering why he was so pale 
And still — that I was now an orphan boy. 
Her words were meaningless to me, and yet 
They pierced me through, the language from the 

dead. 
I speak not of our orphanage : of it 
Thou canst not know : none but the orphan knows. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 113 

Eventful history is ours, most mine, 
As manhood came to me, my mother died : 
Her illness, death and burial, were all told 
At once to me. 

" I never can forget 
That morn we parted, one short year before ; 
Beside the hawthorn tree, near by the door. 
Her cottage door, we parted : fair she was, 
Most beautiful, as holy cherub is. 
Her blue eyes aye reflected heaven to me : 
Suffused they were with tears that morn — her 

hand — 
Her long, fond kiss — her words of warning kind — 
Her agony at parting — all I feel — 
I see — I hear this moment, as if years 
Had been rolled, and I again stood near 
Her cottage door, that morn." 

The angel's face 
Brightened with thoughts divine, as I here paused ; 
And soon in tones seraphic said : " Most filial thou. 
Son of the erring star of time. Thy sire 
Sitteth among the prophets of the earth, 
Enthroned, eucrowned, before the great white 

throne ; 



114 THE GUARDIAN AJSIGEL. 

With them in high converse he takes a part : 
With them on mighty emhassies to distant orbs 
He goes. Oft have I met him leading on 
Cherubic cohorts to the earth ; once him 
SaiUng the Empyrean, I beheld, 
None with him save his angel. Glorious was 
His mien, as one on Mercy's errand sent 
To some wayfarer on the strand of earth. 
Thy mother, too, oft have I seen of late : 
More beautiful now is her eye of blue ; 
More fair her face : ethereal all is she : 
Nor is there in the sinless empire vast. 
Daughter of earth, with witchery of mien 
Surpassing. Spirits just arrived from worlds 
Which never saw the earth, pause to admire 
On passing her. Well is she known up there, 
For every angel from the earth arrived. 
She visits to inquire if they saw thee. 
There is not in thy history one jot 
Unknown to her. But yesternight, just as 
The Evening Star uprose, I bade her hail. 
As she came near to minister to thee : 
And hail, when with the angels of the night 
TJpflew, when morning lit upon the hills 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 115 

Of earth. Tliy father and thy mother hold 
Long parleys by the stream of life ; and in 
The bowers of bliss, make symphonies at morn 
And eve, on their great golden harps." 

" Great angel of Jehovah, bear with me," 
I said, "for I have many things to ask. 
First, what is death, or rather what is it 
To die ? Does the soul think in the death-hour ? 
Does the soul see at once the spirit realms ? 
When it is loosened from the body frail. 
Doth it remain a season on the verge, 
I' the mists of the shadow ? Who first gives it hail 
When like uncaged eagles out it flies ? 
How far is to the throne ? What escort bears 
Its frailty to the Judgment Seat ? Are souls 
Which have already found immortal homes. 
In the bright country of the hierarchies. 
Spectators of the dying struggle ? Tell, 
Tell me, angel ! does the soul unfledged 
Take all its thoughts and feelings up with it, 
And leave its body like a shattered harp. 
Whose strings are jangled and flung loose ? Per- 
chance 



116 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

'Tis sin to ask such, mysteries divine ? 

If not, answer me ; but if in part 

'Tis sin, speak part : of part be mute. Explain, 

Spirit, if tbou may'st, tlie mystery of death. ! " 

Straight as I paused, the angel musing, stood 
A moment, then replied : " The mystery of death 
I know not, none but who have died may know — 
That did I never, nor can I ever die." 

" Hold ! " I exclaimed, " wise angel ! art thou then 
A creature, finite in thy sense, as I ? " 

Answering, he said : " We both are angels, thou 

Incarnate angel art ; but spirit I, 

Pure, immaterial spirit. To mortality 

Matter must yield, but spirit may not die. 

Much of the history of man I know. 

Much of angelic history — of death 

Nothing, although, thousands of years I live. 

Ask me of any of the far-off worlds — 

Ask me of tbe immortal hierarchies — 

Ask me of the remotest future, far 

Beyond the confluence of all the streams 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. IIT 

Of time, i' the ocean of Eternity. 

Ask me of earth's sublimest deed of crime — 

Ask me of the remedial scheme of grace ! — 

Ask me of Earth, and Hell, and Heaven, and Grod, 

And I win answer thee ; hut ask me not 

Of death, for in it I no portion have." 

" Spirit," I said, " almost omniscient thou, 
Bearing the burden of such knowledge. Ne'er 
Shall I in lore ascend to height so great. 
I feel as one upon a mountain-top. 
Arrayed with clouds, who cannot see the vale 
Below, with all its varied scenery ; 
Nor the blue welkin overhead. My thoughts 
Run to and fro, and come again to me, 
Like messenger sent forth, who still returns 
Unfit to make report. Enlighten me. 
Great angel, of the mighty past, and tell 
Of the Death Angel. Much I dread to meet 
His advent. In my youth oft have I waked 
Amazed, at midnight, for I thought the wail 
Of the sad wintry wind around our house. 
Was the dread herald of his silent tread. 
Are the surroundings, and the awe 



118 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Wliicli thrills our hearts, at hearing of his name, 

But the wild mystic dreams of poet souls ? 

Tell me, I pray thee," — How the face divine 

Of the attentive angel brighter gleamed. 

It may be that the memories of scenes, 

Of grand triumphal death scenes flashed across 

His vision. This, he answered : — 

" True, I know 
Thy race dreads the death-angel, but it is 
The wild creations of your bards they dread. 
The angels, who let out the deathless soul 
From its clay palace, are as numerous 
As are the spirits which they do release. 
On earth each prison has its keeper, who 
The keys keeps faithful, so is ^t in all worlds. 
There is an angel stationed at the door 
Of each imprisoned soul, to ope the leaves 
And set it free, when the eternal knell 
Announce the hour. Thine own death-angel now 
Tarries, though thou him seest not. Serene 
And glorious he, as all heaven's angels are. 
The fallen hierarchies, discrowned and lost. 
No office hold in thy fair earth. They seek 
Such office, but seek vainly : only when 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 119 

The soul has sinned away its day of grace. 
And left the flesh, their sovereignty begins 
To sway and rend it. But a guarding spirit^ 
The sentinel and servant, ministers 
Each to one soul. The Spirit of Death has charge 
The wheels of life to stop, whene'er the time 
Of the soul's unbodying arrives, nor he 
Knoweth the hour, but vigilant must wait 
Until the moment. There no darkness is 
Forewarning him. This secret God keeps pent 
In his own mind. This Spirit of Death has 

charge 
To keep that shrine deserted of its soul. 
Until it shall come back for it. G-reat charge ! 
Oft have I seen the angel hovering o'er 
The corpse yet warm with recent life, while round 
Stood friends in anguish all convulsed : 
! little thought they of the presence there 
Of him immortal and invisible. 
There is no bier, whence one may not be seen 
Watching o' it, nor grave without one nigh. 
Oft have I, ere thou wert born into life, 
O'erflown the antique countries of earth. 
By winter's windy, gloomy, midnight moon. 



120 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

jSTor e'er yet untended grave have seen 
Of angel. 

"At the resurrection hour, 
When centuries of intervening years 
Have been ingulfed in the vast shoreless sea 
Of old Eternity, the Spirit of Death 
Shall build the palace up again, fit house 
For the returned and travelled soul. Sublime 
Is the death-angel in his love : sublime 
Watching the sepulchre untired, through long 
And dreary centuries." 

" Most marvellous 
Thy teachings are, angel," answered I. 
" 'Tis strange that youth and age alike should dread 
A myth. Now answer me this one thing more. 
Explain the meaning of that valley dark, 
And called, ' of the Shadow of Death,' with horrors 

thick. 
Of which I oft have read and dreamed." 

At once 
He thus upspake : " There is a Vale of Death 
Which thou must cross to reach Eternity ; 
But 'tis a place with fancies thick set round, 
And dreams of fiction. Beautiful it is 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 121 

As the approach to heaven must ever bo. 
Another vale there is for those who die 
Weighed down by loads of unrepented sin, 
Which they must pass toward their appointed place, 
"Where'er that be. Beauteous it cannot be ; 
But of its horrors, possible or true, 
Naught know I, nor can tell." 

" Is that the Vale 
Of Death," I asked, "the which I must pass 

through, 
Whose gate I see, thick thronged with holy souls. 
Its wide-spread ]3ortals entering into bliss ? " 

" That is thy Vale of Death," he answering said, 

" Oft have I travelled through it : angels aye 

Are journeying there : some, business — pleasure 

some 
Invite. Great multitudes were there, that day 
Messiah passed through it from Calvary ; 
Thicker than trees amid the wood, or stars 
In northern skies, when winter's icy winds 
Howl o'er the ocean. In all worlds 'twas known 
Messiah would explore the Vale of Death : 

The hour was known ; and from most distant orbs 

6 



122 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Upon the outskirts of the universe, 
Angels to meet him came. I too was there, 
And heard the cry of anguish — Why hast thou. 
My God ! my God ! forsaken me ? and heard 
From out the gloom, the answer dread to hear, 
Unheard of man — Thou art forsaken thus, 
Because for man thou diest, thyself a man. 
I saw the Man-God die, and with his soul 
Went on to bliss. Vast, vast, beyond all words 
To tell, was the assemblage gathered there, 
Waiting in silence all along the road 
To glory, there to welcome him. The scene 
Was only grander, when he came again 
Embodied, living, from the sepulchre. 

" Within the sepulchre, that hour I stood 
When he returned from his great tour to heaven 
I saw him enter in, and the cold form 
Laid there, reanimate. I saw the door 
Of the sealed tomb to the angel's touch unloose, 
And heard distinct seraphic voices tell 
Grand tidings to the faithful few who came 
At early morning, 'Christ is risen to-day ! ' 
Nor knew I e'er till then, that the low grave 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 123 

Is not a darksome, doleful place, but full 

Of angel presences, and so most fit 

For saints to lodge in. Holy is the grave 

Since Christ himself the precincts has passed through. 

And holy too the avenue which leads 

From earth thereunto — such thy Vale of Death ! 

The entering soul, each one, his passport hath. 

Unknown, unheard on earth. That secret word 

To thee shall be revealed, whene'er the hour 

For thine unbodying comes." 

" Seraphic friend 
And brother," I exclaimed, " surpassing kind 
Is God to give me one so wise as thou 
In mysteries sublime, my steps to guide. 
Most grateful I for all thy lore has told. 
Yet more I wish to know — there is a mist 
Before me, that concealing, which my soul 
Yearns to know perfectly. Great is thy power 
Of speech. So smooth thine oratory flows. 
So full of pictures, that I comprehend 
As if by instinct, all profoundest things 
In living light displayed. I know, before 
My thirsty eyes thou canst portray ' the new 
And living way.' " 



124: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

" My ward, my child beloved/' 
The angel said, " ' the new and living way/ 
Relates to the soul's feelings. If its thoughts 
All cling to Christ, as verdant ivy clings 
To the cathedral ruins, then they flow 
All heavenward, through ' the new and living way ; ' 
If, otherwise, the soul be filled with self, 
On its own merits dwell, and deeds of love. 
As fitting it for place i' the realms above. 
Then the old road of works must it toil through. 
Which hath long years been shut — a road no more. 

" Perchance — for I would have thee go with me 

Distinct and clear of mind — should I ascribe 

Man's twofold way of life, evil and good. 

As two diverging roads, this old, that new. 

Through Time, from its beginning to the dawn 

Of his Eternity, before him laid — 

Better might'st mark it. Every living man 

Hath his own phase of genius, which subtends 

His sensuous being, and each several phase 

Its own peculiar orbit, in which to move 

Its thoughts like planets round their sovereign sun. 

The lover's orbit is a moonlight path. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 125 

Where love and hope and heauty linger ; where 

No storms nor sorrows find a resting-place. 

The poet's is along the stormy tops 

Of precipices, by the ocean's verge, 

By sounding waterfalls, by woods, by wilds, 

Through continents unseen by vulgar eyes. 

Where thoughts grow on the trees, like leaves and 

fruit, 
And where the soul communes with presences 
Kevealed to bards alone. The ambitious soul 
Hath for its high emprise an orbit too. 
He sees his name writ in his country's scroll 
Of deathless glory. Like as those who stray 
O'er the earth's mountain-tops, or valleys green ; 
So travel ever all those souls along 
Their chosen orbits. Orbits too, there are, 
Of good and evil ; nor are souls exempt 
From choice of one or other. 

" From the dawu 
Of time, far back as the first Sabbath day, 
A road was traced, by which the souls, first made. 
Might travel to their goal ; but short the time 
The road was pervious. It vp^as locked what time 
Man fell apostate. Then^its gates I saw 



126 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

By angels closed and barred to ope no more. 

For man's obedience to the law hencefortb 

Impossible, no more should proffered be 

The master-key to move the locks divine. 

Oft through departed years, travelled have I 

To see its portals, if they e'er should ope, 

But still fast closed they stood, these direful words 

Writ high above the lintel, words of flame, 

' Our Grod is a consuming fire,' — no soul 

By that old road finds entrance into bliss. 

" Now mark me — of the new and living way 
Decreed of old, ere yet the universe 
At Grod's creative voice arose. The way 
Of grace it is — ^the openest road, most wide 
For human feet or angels. By it the soul, 
Filled with this scheme divine, at ease ascends 
To bliss eternal. 

" Like a river, vast 
As inland sea, which hath its fountain head 
In some frore glacier, or mountain range, 
This scheme goes back to deep eternity, 
Ere yet the angels were, or the ancient stars 
Were lighted ; secret, grand, and full of love 



THE aUAEDIAN ANGEL. 127 

r the Father's bosom slumbered, which the Son 

There lying, only knew. — 'Twas this, that God 

The Father, in whom represented is 

All Godhead, which can be, in one threefold, 

Father, Son, and Spirit ; in his Son sole-born, 

To guilty man should reconciled be : 

That scheme the Son accepted, and became 

Vicegerent for his chosen. These the terms 

Of that high covenant — Messiah should 

Incarnate be, incarnate die for man. 

And rising for him, intercession make 

Before the Father's throne. To this 

The Holy Spirit the last great sanction gave ; 

And ratified it stood, that He his share 

Of this contract sublime, the Elect of God 

To enlighten, sanctify and glorify. 

Should have forever. Souls which comprehend 

This plan of grace eterne, and in it find 

Supernal bliss, are pilgrims in ' The new 

And living way.' What time this scheme was oped 

To angels, all our harps awoke to song. 

Sweeter than any minstrelsy, erewhile 

Poured in the ear of Godhead ; or since then 

Breathed from ^olian harps, or Dorcian mood 



128 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Of soft recorders^ until time was full, 

And harps serapMc Christ triumphant hailed 

With heaven's full diapason, and the shout 

Of Hallelujahs to the Prince of Peace. 

I felt that earth was yet God's world, nor cast 

Forever from his presence all divine, 

All merciful. The planets and the stars 

Would soon be dashed to atoms, if they sought 

New orbits for their wanderings ; so the soul 

Which keepeth not within the strait confine 

Of this new way of grace its steadfast track." 

The angel paused ; I felt his argument 
As one who listens to an orator 
Inspired with his own theme. I now beheld 
'^ The new and living way" as clear as if 
The wondrous ladder of the patriarch, 
With angels thronged, before me rose. Anon 
The wish for ampler knowledge moved within, 
And thus again I spoke to him, and said : 
" My Guardian Angel, bear with me awhile 
In all my asking. Is no volume writ 
By angel which combines all angel lore ? 
Had I such tome, into the wilderness 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 129 

I would hie me and revolve it, till I grew 

Wise as thou art." 

Instant he, answering, said : 

" I know thou lovest books, when yet a child 

They pleasured thee. Oft have I gone with thee 

Unto the peak of toppling crag, amid 

The forest, where the waterfall alone 

Was heard, retreat befitting meditation ; 

And watched thee for long hours, intent on song 

Or prose new-buUded. Earthly books there are 

Fit for all time, fit for all study, some : 

One for Eternity — then wait — thou must, 

Till thou art glorified, and thou shalt find 

Thee books, unfolding mysteries beyond 

All present wishes, all imaginings. 

Each planet hath its own peculiar books — 

Its own hath heaven. The angels authors all — 

Greater than others, some. Their voyages 

Long might detain thee ; and their works to view, 

Would claim eternities of mortal time. 

Mere cycles of Eternity. Their lays 

Outbid imagination. In the worlds 

Naught is there like the archetypal book 

Of God, nor e'en the book so called below — 
6* 



130 THE GTTAEDIAN ANGEL. 

It stands 'mid tlie library of heaven, all writ 
In the mystic letters of Eternity. 
Be patient ! nigh, at hand the hour awaits 
Thy disembodiment. What glories then 
Shall burst on thy enraptured soul at death ! " 

" And stand I on the brink of death " I cried, 

" angel ? — for I fear to die — to stand 

Unclothed and naked to the inmost thought, 

Before the eyes of the Most Holy One ! 

My sins are great, so great, that though I hide 

In the cleft-rock of mercy, they rise up 

And shroud the star of hope from me. My hand 

Of faith seems withered, and I cannot cling 

Unto the naked word of God." 

" Hold, hold ! " 
My Guardian Angel cried .: " The Gospel scheme 
Meets every want and need of sinful man. 
Demerit, and what merit, alike are 
To the eye of God. Grace — grace alone thy kind 
Hath lifted to salvation. Grace from God 
Is not bestowed on goodness ; nor from what 
The world calls vice withheld. The Father's will 
Alone is the exhaustless source of grace. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 131 

The love of God in Christ the mystery is, 

Involved in saving man. This well I know, 

For God I heard announce it, on that night 

Man was exiled from Paradise. I met 

That very night with all our hierarchies, 

To meditate on it. Vast multitudes 

Of angels have e'er since in session been. 

Investigating this high problem. Hence 

To aU the Gospel pardon offered is. 

Fear not, earthborn, though great thy sins, yet 

Christ 
Is greater — get thee faith." 

" 'Tis that I lack," 
I answered sorrowful. 

To this, he said, 
In kindest phrase : " My mortal brother, faith 
Is God's rich gift. Faith thou canst not create 
As 'twere a poem. It is given, not made. 
He giveth it like aU his other gifts. 
As seemeth good to him. Ask for it, thou. 
Look in and see, if in thy heart e'en now 
Its living germs be not. Faith never looks 
Within the heart, but still without. It takes the 
word 



132 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Of God in all its nakedness. If doubts 

Arise, it dashes them aside, as one 

Who swimming breasts the billows from his path. 

As living pictures set before the eye, 

The promises writ there it makes its own, 

As they were things embodied. 'Tis perchance 

Assuring faith, for which thou sighest. Well ! 

It none can find, till they have reached the height 

Of holiness sublime. Adhering faith 

Is saving. If thou have not joy and peace, 

Still to the Saviour cling — to Him hold fast ! 

Kemind Him of his promise and be saved. 

The patriarchs, 'tis writ, all died in faith. 

I saw them in the harvest-field of truth 

Go reaping handfuls of the promises. 

And carrying them, as reapers carry sheaves, 

Adown the Vale of Death." 

I answered here : 
" The promises I know, and feed on them 
As feeds the bee on flowers — perennial flowers. 
Those promises round mortal sorrows twine, 
As roses young "bout columns riven and gray. 
Hast thou," said I, inquiring, in reply, 
" E'er whispered, my own angel, in mine ear 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 133 

Such promises^ for often have I felt 

As if the ail- with wings around me waved ; 

When some bright glimpse of promised hope, 

illumed 
My wavering soul ? " 

Cautious he answer made : 
" The promises perchance, inscribed divine 
On angel banners, borne by them in pomp 
On Mercy's embassies, have flashed in light 
Upon thy musing soul, as scenery 
Beheld in youth, arises suddenly, 
Ofttimes before the mind of one grown old. 
Perchance the converse thou hast overheard 
Of disembodied spirits, passing nigh. 
In high communion, through the realms of space 
Whispering of the promises." 

As here 
He paused and looked on me, " My mother," thus 
I spake, " was aye a constant gatherer 
Of j)i^omises ; and many a time for hours, 
In winter's gloomy, windy midnight, I 
Sat with her and collated them. That still 
The pages where they lie, with pencilled lines 
Drawn by my infant hand, inscribed are 



134 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

All tlirough the treasured Bible of our house. 
I stored them too i' the tablets of my mind, 
Often repeating them. ' 'Twas well/ she said, 
' For me to hoard them there, for time might come 
When I should need them, and no book be nigh.' " 

The curtains of my dream were drawn apart, 

And all its scenery 'gan shrink and shift. 

As mist towers melting in the morning glow ; 

When for an instant the angelic form 

Of him, who spake less distinct and less 

As he were vanishing : " Stay — stay," I said, 

'' angel, nor invisible become 

To who would ask thee much, or ere thou go.' 

Hereon the dream rekindled ! up he loomed. 

As on some vale or wide expanded plain 

An heavenward spire late wreathed in vaporous 

clouds 
Starts into sunlight. He, a thing of life 
And glory, e'en more glorious than before. 
His face, how fair, how meek and holy ! words, 
Earth-words cannot portray him. Then, these 

words 
He spake, and they were as the words of one 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 135 

Who sees some spectacle of mystery 
Approaching nigh : " My earthborn brother haste/' 
He said, " even now I hear the sound of wings 
Far off — portending mightier change ! " 

" Yet hold 
A little, of my Saviour I would ask — 
The Prince of Peace, and where his presence now ? " 

" This," quickly answered he, " is all I have 

To tell thee. To all angels dear the name 

Of Jesus is, and ever upmost stands 

His image, in our Godlike memory. 

His face, his form, his plans, his words, his works, 

Are precious to us all. The minstrelsy 

Of Heaven is full of him. Memorials 

Of Him fill every avenue of bliss. 

And battlement, and hill, and vale, and stream, 

And sea. All worlds are full of his great name — 

The sceptre of Eternal Sovereignty 

Is holden by a human hand, that hand 

Messiah's. Eyes which see the universe ; 

The ears which hear all sounds of joy and woe 

Of all intelligences ; yea, the mighty heart 

Which hath pulsations for all things, are His." 



136 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

He paused, for nearer, and more near, approached 
The angel embassy. Myself, I heard 
What seemed the rolling of the chariot wheels. 
At once I asked : " Who comes, angel .? thou 
Who seest them, speak to me." 

Outspoke he clear : 
" Ten thousand times ten thousand angels. Such 
Celestial cavalcade arrives on earth 
For every holy soul unbodying." 

" Stay, 
Stay, angel ! " I exclaimed, " a wondrous change 
Is passing. Is it the mystery of death ? 
I feel as one who sudden floats away 
On a receding wave. My glass of thought 
Is broken into fragments. What is this ? 
Am I an immaterial ray of light 
Extinguishing ? Am I a setting star. 
Or rising planet on yon distant sky 
Beyond those opening breaches ? Can it be 
I am myself no more ? I feel my thoughts 
Around me throng like eagles on the wind : 
Each grander, mightier, than erst. Am I 
All soul — What presences are these — What light 
Is this ? " 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 137 

The voice of tlie old man shook here, 
And for an instant suddenly wa& hushed. 
I too was silent. Soon the mastery 
O'er his emotions fitted him to tell 
The sequel ; and he thus resumed, and told 
The whole — these are the words : 

" Nor other thought 
Passed o'er Albert's lips. The narrative sublime 
Was ended of his dream divine, A flash 
Of light passed suddenly across his face, 
As if the soul in passing out illumed 
The shrine, where it had lodged through all its 

years. 
As suddenly his circling arms embraced 
What seemed to me the air, but likelier was 
The soul outgoing. Instantly he changed 
Into a marble bust of loveliness ! 
I looked into his eyes for thoughts. I saw 
The light which burnt erewhile, so brightly then, 
Quite gone. All left of him on the erring earth 
Was soulless dust. I passed, not needed there, 
The doors of morning. Isabelle, his wife. 
Hung o'er him — how, I tell not. 

" The gay morn 



138 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL'. 

Had dawned. The white mist lay like drapery 
Upon the broad and beauteous river. Low 
I' the east the morning star shone out. On the ear 
Of morn no pilgrim voice arose. The winds 
Slept in the woods, the matin-bird i' the bower. 
The glittering dew engrained the robes of earth 
With pearls and diamonds. Earth seemed not 

like earth, 
Perchance seemed not, because my thoughts were all 
With him who had gone from it." 

This the end 
Of Albert's dream, by the devout and aged man ; 
Nor left he aught untold, of that told him, 
On the morn Albert expired. This is the end ! 

It seemed like revelation new ; and lit 
With brighter light the mystery of souls 
And angels. As a star new launched in space 
Casts radiance o'er new passes in the sky, 
So would that dream pursue me with its power. 
Until I felt its memory ne'er would die, 
Unless I dying ! 

As I went my way. 
Nor ever saw them more — before me rose 



THE au A EDI AN ANGEL. 139 

The scenes : around me seemed the worlds to 

breathe 
Of that strange pair, of whom, immortal one, 
Mortal awhile the other, and in part. 
Not wholly : as one on the threshold stands, 
Between two worlds, a foot on either side. 
Of neither, yet partaking some of both. 



THE GUARDIAN AIGEL. 



BOOK THIRD. 

My native land I visited, wlien years 

Thrice seven had flown o'er earth, as spirits fly 

Which leave their memories o'er all their track, 

And live forever. Oft on ocean's vast 

And trackless path, at midnight hour, when winds 

Flew round us, lighting on the shrouds and sails, 

Or " took the ruf&an billows hy their tops," 

And dashed them o'er the shuddering prow, I 

thought 
Of that lone ship in peril, ages past. 
To which an angel came, a messenger, 
The hope of the ship's crew ; 'twixt Crete midway 
And rocky Melita, with words of cheer 
To Eome's apostle. 

Twelve long days and nights. 



142 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Since on my homeward voyage I did sail, 

Had reckoned up tlieir hours, when dawning morn 

Eevealed the rocky shores of Erin green, 

In dark outline before us. Ere the night 

Came from her worlds heyond the sky, with all 

Her starry retinue, the northern shores 

Of that wild isle, the Mull of dark Kintyre, 

The lofty Arran, we had passed, and saw 

The glittering archipelago which lies 

In Clyde's broad Frith. Dumbarton's storied steep 

And castellated rock, against the sky 

Loomed up, like some angelic sentinel 

Gruarding us, as all night we anchored lay 

"Waiting the break of morn. There was no change 

Upon the scenery. The Frith, the isles, 

The sky, the clouds, the shores were still the same, 

As in the days gone by. The viewless wind 

In wantonness caressed me, as of old. 

When rapt in thoughts sublime a boy I stood. 

At morn and eve, upon those windy steeps 

Unaltered. — I, alone, of all things there. 

Was changed by Time's rude finger. 

Once again 
I stood, returned, upon the crowded wharves 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 143 

Of the great city. No familiar face, 

No voice of kinsman, friend, or comrade old, 

Was there to greet me. In the grave they slept — 

Father and mother ; nor could I mine eyes 

From tears refrain. I felt as one who stands 

Amid the sepulchres of all his race, 

Himself the last survivor, all his thoughts 

Eeflected only to the shadowy past — 

But all earth-scenes are fleeting, so the thoughts 

That form and vivify the mind within. 

Pass we my visit to the scenes of old, 
Familiar and beloved ; the roof which saw 
My hirth-hour ; the green vales and hUls of mist 
Dear to my boyhood, — pass the pilgrimage 
To my dear parents' grave — that duty dear ; 
Pass we my steps through places known to fame, 
Palace, or prison, consecrated church. 
Or castellated keep, or breezy downs. 
Where erst embattled armies, face to face 
Encountering, shocked, and Scotland wept or sung 
Their slaughter, or their glory ; Bannockburn 
And Brace's might, or Flodden's fatal field, 
Where all the forest flowers were v/ede away ; 



144: T H IC GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

These pass we — they are sung by loftier harps, 
By hearts with heavenly genius more inflamed ; 
But not with patriot love more filled than mine. 

At length — nor where, nor how, it needs not tell 
Suffice it that the scene, the place, the time 
Fitted the unsought occasion — once again 
We met — strange meeting — Isabelle and I ; 
Young Isabelle, the wife of him who died 
On the far Mississippi, with whose fate 
Connection I had held so manifold. 
So multiform ; as known to who thus far 
The lingering mazes of my devious strain 
Have followed patient. 

Isabelle was here. 
Who o'er the sea had voyaged, to behold 
The natal land of him, late gone to Heaven ; 
And memories common to us both, and strong 
As links of steel, compelled us, each to each 
To commune of the past. 

We sat us down 
Upon a rustic seat, o'erlooking wide 
The Firth of Forth, with all its isles and shores, 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 145 

Its trees, towers, lulls, and skimming white-sailed 

barks. 
Then — nor was't strange, for who with dreams so 

much 
Had busied been — dreams mingling with our lives, 
And, it may be, presaging life to come — 
We spoke of visions, and she told me this. 
Her dream of yesternight : 

" In thought I stood 
Upon a distant star, the universe 
Outspread beneath my vision, clear as day. 
I' the centre of his worlds sat the great sun. 
And still he filled their emptying urns with years. 
He was the torch which lighted them, the fire 
Which heated them, the fjunt from which their sky 
Drank all its blue, the earth her green, and all 
The flowers their witchery of dies. The stars. 
Like showers of glory from some mass 
Of nebulous light outshot, through boundless space, 
Too populous and emulous of growth — 
Arcturus and Orion, and the Seven, 
The Pleiades, and the chambers of the south — 
Were there, as fresh as when Job saw them shine 

Tliree thousand years ago ; and the morning star, 

7 



146 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Which rapt Isaiah's harp, by angel's hands 
Attuned to immortality, hath given. 

While thus I saw the myriad rounded spheres 

Eun through the universe, like cars of gold, 

Methought I felt the presences divine 

Of spiritual heings. Then beheld 

Hard by two spirits, marvelling as I 

To see their glory ; this of earth — of heaven. 

Angelic, showed the other. 

" Wherefore sail 
These stars the Empyrean .? " questioned he 
Who less than angel seemed. " Be these the ships 
Celestial, on the sea of time afloat 
Toward shores eternal ? — or immortal fanes, 
Dwellings and tabernacles, for repose 
Of angels, on their voyagiugs divine ? 
Whence, whither, and how long ? " 

Ere }et reply 
Vouchsafed was, a change came o'er the scene : 
The stars set instant ; all was night and gloom. 
Then, as when morning light relumes the east. 
The earth alone I saw. Then as a ship 
First on the horizon seen, at early morn 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 147 

By wlio from some tall Pharos scans tlie sea, 
Nigh Hfts itself, nigh and nigher, and becomes 
More palpable, till all its spars and sails, 
And smallest rigging show minute and clear. 
So did the earth approach, nor long the time 
Or ere I marked its rocky shores distinct. 
Barring the entrance of its surfy seas : 
Its hills, its vales, its rivers, lakes and streams ; 
Its quiet hamlets, and its royal towns. 
All sleeping in the sun, like cradled babes 
Eocked by the mother's hand. I heard the rush 
Of cataracts, down leaping from the hills, 
Parents of rivers — saw the upland tarns 
Lie in their misty mountain homes asleep : 
The world was rising from its couch of night. 
To pay its orisons to the uprisen sun. 

While gazing thus upon the beauteous earth. 

More beauteous than it ever seemed before, 

Again the scene was shifted, and I saw 

An avenue revealed, connecting earth 

And heaven. Nor knew I till that dreaming hour 

Such avenue there was. Long, broad and steep. 

From star to star, through boundless space it rose. 



148 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

Surpassing all the human mind can frame, 
Of vastness or of beauty. Giant trees 
Shading its streets ; fountains murmured by 
Cooling its precincts. Hierarchies bright 
Its pleasant paths innumerable clomb, 
Filling its way with glory. The great gate 
Wide open stood, and by it stood, in hosts, 
Attendant angels, waiting who should come, 
In heaven expected, yet delayed on earth. 

While wondering at this avenue, and all 
The heavenly pomp assembled there, I saw 
A human soul, and guardian angel, stand 
Before the guarded portals of the gate, 
Seeking admittance of th' angelic host, 
To that their heavenward pass. Whereat arose 
Loud shouts of cherubim and seraphim 
To hail their advent. That triumphant joy 
Ceased, and a fiery chariot them up took. 
And bore them high, that heavenly road along, 
In pomp and grandeur, such as ne'er beheld 
Mind mortal, nor imagined. Vaster far 
That chariot, and more glorious than the blaze 
Of the great sun, escorted by all stars. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 149 

Made pilgrimage from earth up to the gates 

Of Beula. Hosts that avenue along, 

Angelic, veiled their crowns and shouted hymns 

The while that chariot passed, Methought I 

heard 
The rapturous pseans of innumerous souls 
High up the heavenly hills, as they heheld 
The entering pageant and the chariot wheels. 
Which bore a soul to everlasting bliss. 
The noise of trumpets filled the air. The peals 
Of the great organ of eternity. 
The music of ten thousand holy harps, 
The voices of angelic minstrels, swelled 
The wondrous diapason. As the pair 
Entered the thunderous vestibules of heaven, 
A film dropped from my eyes, and instantly 
I knew the soul, it was Ms soul, my own 
Departed husband's, on its way to Grod, 
By him led forward, who his every step 
On earth had known, and lighted all his ways — 
His Guardian Angel. 

Here again my dream 
Was changed ; an angel came to me and cried — 
" Look, mortal, on the earth once more." 



150 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

I looked, 
And saw the Mississippi covered once again 
With the white mists of morn. Upon its banks 
Arose the dwelling of my happy youth, 
Gathered around it vast angelic hosts. 
The chamber of my dying husband came 
Before me, and myself embracing him, 
Himself no longer. Little thought I then 
Angelic eyes pitied my grief. 

'• A world there is." 
The angel spake again to me. Said he : 
" A world of Grod nearer to earth, and filled 
With beings ruined, and for ever doomed 
To woe ! — which seen, will give to understand 
God's justice and God's mercy, and to judge 
The insane blindness of the fools who rush 
Heedless of what He promises, to grasp 
Empty fruition of the lusts which war 
Against the soul, and for the joys of time 
Barter immortal bliss and glorious life 
Among the seraphim ; preferring wrath, 
And wailing in the abyss, and gnashing teeth, 
Delivered to the worm that dieth not." 



THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 151 

His hand he waved, and lo ! before me stood 

The star-hght Hell ! Like exhalation dire, 

It rose and stood before me, looming np, 

Dread, horrible, infernal ! most unlike 

All save itself, of worlds. No hills it had 

Nor mountain range, nor sea, nor glassy lake, 

Nor murmuring rivulets, nor forests old. 

No breath of evening zephyrs, or soft airs. 

No winds. No sun it had, nor silver moon, 

No gentle stars i' the empyrean sky. 

No city, citadel, or tower, or wall : 

No fairy palaces, nor grove, nor lawn. 

No white-sailed ships on seas, no shallops frail 

Of fairy form, on winding rivers hid, 

Away in mountain fastnesses. No haunts 

To be revisited, no travellers young 

Or old, upon its coasts, come from far lands 

To muse. There were no green, historic scenes 

To see and love. Like cities in our dreams. 

Deserted of all traffic, so was it 

Without one mart of business, or exchange 

Within, for all the merchants of a world 

To congregate. No science and no art 

Saw I therein. No harp, no statuary. 



152 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

No portraiture of things most fair, "beheld 
In other worlds of God. No Sabbath day- 
Came there, no Mercy-seat, where weary souls 
Worn out could kneel. No sanctuary where praise 
And 23rayer, and truth eterne, and sacraments 
Delight the entranced worshipper. None was 
Who prayed or praised, in all that world, not one ! 
Nor book, nor scripture soothed, nor armed the soul 
With gems of human genius, truths divine. 
Greetings were none, though aged forms I saw, 
And youthful forms in human beauty clad. 
No home was there, no moonlight trysting tree : 
No smiles of youthful love ! no glances sweet 
And soft at meetings, as on earth ; nor looks 
Of hope, nor tears of joy, nor reveries 
Of blessedness. 

How long I gazing stood 
I know not, ne'er can know, but long enough 
To show me that there came no days, no weeks, 
No months, no years, no time, in that dread place. 
Cycles on cycles ceaseless rolled, unknown 
Around the beach of that forgotten star, 
For all forgot it seemed of God, so drear 
It was ; and full of everlasting woe ! 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 153 

Like monuments of agony and death, 

I saw tlie ruined angels stand, their crowns 

All smouldering with slow, eternal fires. 

Watching the billows burning, of that flood 

Which ever dashed against the battlements 

Of that lone star, like seared and scorched pines, 

Erewhile beheld, upon earth's mountain-tops 

By forest conflagration fired, they stood. 

Far off, in the interior, saw I more, 

And beyond, the agonies untold. 

The blackened forms of beings waih'ng there 

In utter desolation. Memory 

And thought alone were left them. Nor in all. 

Far as my eye could scan, was aught which showed 

The sacred, sweet relationships of earth. 

Of husband, spouse, of parent, child. No love 

Of brother, sister, lover, friend. It was 

A world wherein to dwell, the passing thought 

Appalled the loaded fancy with all forms 

Of hideousness and horror. Yet its gates 

Wide open stood, and thronged with those who 

come, 

Blind to its terrors, down the slanting way, 

Betrayed and lost. Most horrible it was, 
7* 



154 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Nor can I now, without hot flow of tears 
Describe it, and the hopeless dwellers there, 
Did not the angel words high elevate 
My thoughts, to leave all fears of it behind. 

Fast as it had arisen it passed away. 

His hand the angel moved, and it was gone. 

This, too, he said : " Thy husband never saw 

That ruined world and its inhabitants. 

It is not near the avenue to bliss. 

But far below the earth on its confines ; 

And far enough from every other world 

To hide all knowledge of its agony 

Within its own dire battlements of woe ! 

As when we pass from sights most desolate 
On earth, to scenes of loveliness and joy 
And blessedness supreme ; so in my dream 
The star of woe and horror floated by. 
And sights of bliss came o'er the changed scene. 
The glorious road between the earth and sky, 
Like rainbow of sur]3assing pomp and size ; 
And all along its arch, the chariot wheels 
Of angels and transfigured souls rolled on, 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL, 155 

As if an envoy of great import. Bright 
The vestibules of heaven shone out, and all 
Its walls and towers. Rejoicings full and grand 
En choired with angel trump and harp and song, 
Resounded from within the battlements 
Of bliss, as if a nation of the earth 
From tyranny set free. 

Anon methought 
I stood within the gates, upon a tower 
Surpassing all earth's towers for altitude, 
Which amplest prospect gave ; and saw the 

mount 
Of God, set in the vale of heaven, begirt 
With the glittering, glorious, crystal, waveless sea. 
High on its top the Mediatorial Throne, 
Whiter than light, stood up, and overlooked 
The universe. Steps rose to it on steps. 
Lit with seven mystic burning lamps. It stood. 
The centre of all sovereignty in heaven. 

One with the likeness of a man sat there : 

Upon his head were many crowns, and all 

I knew, but chiefest knew, the coronet 

Of mercy ; brightest was its sheen. Threefold — 



156 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Of the prophets, priests and kings combined. The 

bow 
Of sovereign grace suspended, hung o'erhead, 
Spanning the throne triumphal — arch it hung 
Majestical, sublime. On one side blazed 
These words terrific : " A consuming fire 
Is our God " — on the other, writ alike 
In everlasting flame — " Our God is love." 
From underneath the throne a river flowed 
Of crystal, round the mount and in the sea, 
The everlasting sea, discharged its flood — 
The river which the psalmist saith " makes glad 
For aye, the city of our God." 

How long 
On the white throne, and- Him who sat on it, 
I gazed, there was no horologe to tell. 
But ne'er shall I forget the mystery 
Of God in Christ, then oped to me. Then thoughts 
Before me passed, so luminous and grand ; 
That i<must be an angel and ascend 
The heights of the invisible, and put on 
The spirit state to give them glory enough 
In utterance. 

Anon, another view 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 157 

Of God's liigh. mount was shown to me. I thought 
I saw it covered with transfigured souls, 
An angel host. If all the trees of earth's 
Vast forests came ; if all earth's buried dead 
Came forth ; if all the silver stars create, 
Together stood, all o'er the mountain ridge, 
Amid the valley of Eternity, 
'Twould he to that great congregation less 
Than shell or pebble on the spreading strand 
To all the worlds compared, which Grod first made, 
"What time he brooded over chaos dark 
And shapeless. 

O'er that congregation reigned 
Silence profound, mysterious, deep and dread. 
I heard no harp of angel, or of soul ; 
No wing of seraphim cleave the air, in haste 
Returning or departing. Speechless stood 
All these, as if in awful worship wrapt 
Adoring mercy. While I sought to know 
The cause of such assemblage round the throne, 
And turned to ask mine angel — " Hold," he said ; 
" Look to the steps of the white throne." 

I looked, 
And instantly I saw my husband's soul 



158 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

With his attendant angel^ coming forth 

From judgment. Never can I cease to see, 

While memory lives, his mien, his gait, his air. 

Diviner and more Godlike he appeared 

Than when I saw him travelling up to bliss 

In the angelic chariot, on the road 

So glorious. Like a minstrel king he came, 

A crown upon his head, and in his hand 

A harp. I heard his voice of music chant 

A strain, surpassing all earth canticles 

In 23athos and sublimity. His steps 

I saw by angels tended — ministries 

Ordained of Grod, angelic people they. 

And older than the living sun or stars ; 

Yet young and beautiful with holiness, 

Innumerous souls I saw approaching him 

On every side, to welcome, and to hail 

His coming. Some I saw distinct and clear. 

Their faces oft had passed me in the ways 

Of earth ; and not a few, the likeness bare 

Of beings I had known, but long since fled 

From Time's grave-trenched coasts. They had 

the air 
Of mortals, and the countenance ; for souls 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 159 

Eetain the outlines of their body, all 

Transfigured and ennobled. Then I saw 

Before the mount of judgment, where he walked, 

A vast infinitude of scenery spread, 

The scenery of the great domain of heaven. 

It seemed a land of natural terraces : 

Of green-capped hills, of winding lakes, where ran 

Meandering streams : of trees umbrageous, tall 

And beautiful, as the fair tree of life 

In Eden. Waterfalls were there, and crystal lakes, 

And forests, such as earth ne'er owned e'en when 

All young, and new create ; and fairy nooks 

Inviting souls and angels in ; and bowers 

Of peaceful, living, endless, holy bliss. 

I saw no grave mound rise in it, nor heard 

The wail of orphanage or widowhood. 

Where'er I looked, the robe of holiness 

Lay over it like a glory spread across 

The face of beauty. All was blessedness. 

Its music made me strong. The air, the light, 

The sounds, the people, and the place, bespoke 

The holy citadel, and garden of God. 

I knew the while I dreamed, and dreaming saw 

Not heaven itself, but the symbolic views 



160 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Of heaven, befitting tlie earthborn dreamer. Here 
A change came o'er me, and again tlie scene 
Was clianged. 

I heard the Guardian Angel speak 
To my Lord's soul ; and saw his finger point 
On to the Orient. Instant at the sign 
They both spread out their ample wings and soared 
The empyrean. On. they sailed like barks 
Upon a summer sea. I too was borne 
Away, and followed them. The angel form 
Who guided me went too, nor word the while 
Spake he. At last I saw them both alight 
Upon a lofty mountain-top. At first, 
Methought a veil of mist its summit hid ; 
But as I looked, I saw its cKfPs distinct. 
'Twas granted me to reach another peak 
Short space from that, whereon his soul 
Went up to the o'erlooking heights, which rose 
Tower-like, amid a boundless plain. The heights 
The Guardian Angel first ascended, both 
Stood there, like travellers, to mine eyes, gone up 
For observation wide. 

There was a tree, 
A solitary tree upon the top : 



THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 161 

Such tree could find no soil on earth to give 
It nutriment, and roots far reaching. Tall, 
Umbrageous, laded full with fruit divine. 
Two vacant thrones stood underneath its boughs, 
There sat they down, my husband's glorious soul. 
And his attendant Guardian Angel. Both 
Like sovereign kings appeared, who took survey 
Of some vast empire which conjoint they ruled ; 
And now from noontide travel sat them down 
For calm repose, yet took not off their crowns 
Of glory. 

The long rays which kissed the place, 
And all the scenes outspread below were bright. 
Brighter than all light else, beheld erewhile. 
My ministering angel whispering, said : 
" That is prophetic light, which showed the seers 
Of olden time, remote futurity." 
From off the battlements on which I stood, 
I saw distinct two vast mysterious seas. 
On which my husband looked. The angel turned 
His eyes and thoughts to them. To the Orient, 

one — - 
The other toward the Occident, was spread 
Boundless. Upon the Orient strand I saw 



162 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Tke aged Past walk sorrowful, and old. 

As tMck as hulks of stranded argosies 

On earth's black rocks, lay worn-out empires, rent 

And desolate. Among the drifting rack 

Floated the blighted hopes and schemes of Time. 

No more I saw of that. But turning, saw 

The ocean of the Future, and beyond. 

The tops of distant ages from afar. 

Like full-rigged ships come up. Along the shores 

Shone lights, most faint the farthest, but all bright. 

All moving onward. In the future skies 

Shone moons and stars, awaiting destinies 

Unknown to me. 

Far out into the waves 
Of that futurity, before mine eyes, 
A promontory of the mountain, rose 
That cape far-reaching. Next the royal pair 
Seemed to discourse. Upon its jutting ridge 
Myriads of shapes angelic they beheld. 
Their eyes were turned from looking far away 
Into the distant future, for events 
Foretold them on the first blest Sabbath night 
Of time, whereon first was revealed to them 
God s scheme of mercy. Leave they asked, that night, 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 163 

To look into tlie mystery sublime, 

And mark the sign of its approach. Nor once 

Had they that post deserted, spying thence 

The wondrous secret of Eternity : 

And well had it repaired their large desire. 

As one who travels oft in dreamland knows — 
I had another vision. 

In the air 
Methought I sailed, like a young star of hope. 
Beside me sailed my angel. It was day, 
A summer day most beautiful to see. 
Below me lay an island in the sea 
Of crystal girdled. Circular it lay. 
Pyramidal in height, and terraced all, 
From base to summit. Traversed everywhere. 
By avenues of beauty. Trees superb, 
Of every form, and flowers of fairest hue 
Garnished its shores. Its waterfalls and rills ; 
Its glens, its arched chasms and battlements, 
Seemed all ethereal. Music too, was there, 
And minstrelsy o' sweetness, softer than 
That heard upon the mount of God. It came 
Up in mine ears, like the seraphic tones 



164 THE GUARDIAN ANGP:L. 

Of pilgrim spirit, sitting at the close 

Of day upon the forest edge, who breathes 

Upon his flute a roundelay of love. 

This islet in the crystal sea, this isle 

Of infants, marvellous gathering had of souls, 

Of infant spirits, innumerous, and past 

All numbers, brought togetlier on the earth. 

I saw some sitting on the jutting rocks. 

Contemplating the waterfalls : some up 

The grassy slopes ascending ; some beneath 

The palms and cedars lying, in converse 

Divine : some sang the odes and songs of bliss : 

Some thrilled their strings of gold — no sorrow there ! 

No tear-drop fell ! no word of strife ! no look 

Of fear ! no wish unsatisfied was there ! 

For every wish was holy. Each young soul 

Its Guardian Angel had. Immortal, too, 

Were they : — nor death, nor grave, nor sin came 

nigh. 
Great jubilee it was, of infant souls 
Assembled there. While gazing thus, I hung 
In air. It seemed as if I floated near 
The top of this all- beauteous isle, and saw 
My husband and his angel standing there. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 165 

Such narrative stirred to its secret depths 
My memories of Anna, Mary, James — 
The lilies Grod had called of late, from those. 
The flowers of love, which in my garden grew. 
Then questioned I, if in that isle o' the sea, 
My treasures lost, yet not lost quite, Rince Hope 
Whispered reunion, she beheld. 

" Them there 
I saw," she answered, '' all the three : I saw 
Them, side by side, upon the topmost hill. 
Overlooking all the isle ; and, them beside, 
Their Guardian Angels, sleepless vigil keeping. 
I had no power to speak, nor they to hear. 
If I had spoken. In their eyes, agaze 
On spiritual glory, earthly sights 
Wake no emotions : — nor ^tis ours to know 
The secrets of Eternity, forbid 
To mortal comprehension — only this 
I saw, that there they were, and in that state 
Serenely happy, as Grod's angels are." 

The dream went onward, like a mountain rill 
Which leaps o'er cataracts ; now by the pool 
Beneath a moment lingers, wheeling then 



166 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Around some jutting rock^ its current hides 

In subterranean channels, but anon, 

Emerges in the green and spreading plain — 

Nor stops again till it beholds the sea, 

And goes with it, made one, around the shores 

Of earth. Me onward thus, raj wondrous dream, 

Through heaven, led devious, till, in thought I stood 

Upon another mountain. Altitude 

On altitude, most high, before me rose 

In one vast semiarch. The conelike heights 

Were beautiful exceedingly, and white 

With glory. Alpine travellers often catch 

Such view, through gorges in the frozen top 

Of mountains, which o'erlook the wide champaign. 

On every pinnacle stood human souls. 

Surveying the Empyrean, through the glass 

Of God. 

While gazing thus on spectacle 
So grand, my angel whispered in mine ear — 
" That is the Synod of God's seers, who saw 
Ere while the future, and its mysteries, 
Oped to the less inspired, who never stood 
Upon the mount of Vision. Year by year. 
They seek these mountain fastnesses, to s^y 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 167 

The advent of tiieir prophecies." 

At this 
My memory recalled their utterances 
Divine and marvellous. I scarce refrained 
From chanting their inspired canticles. 
! past all limning was this glorious dream 
Of the earth-seers. High up the highest peak 
Of the great central height, I saw distinct 
"What seemed the mystic ladder, which was seen 
Of olden time, with hierarchies all white, 
Ascending and descending. 

As the dream 
Shifted and changed, I saw upon the vale, 
Contemplating the vision grand, the soul 
Of my dear lord, and his attendant guide. 
The angel held converse with him the while. 
And oft his right hand lifted, as to point 
Some chiefest of the watchers, but no word 
Fell on my listening ear, 

Next came this scene. 
Before my dreaming mind. I seemed to stand 
Upon the battlements of a bright star, 
That floated in the firmament serene. 
Whence I could see the whole circumference 



168 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Of central heaven. Like some city vast, 

Crowded and populous, angelic forms, 

And souls of eartli, innumerous, I saw : 

Nor ever saw such, blessedness before. 

The vast assemblage was, by tidings stirred, 

Eeplete with joy divine : as when the trees 

Of a great forest shake their weighty boughs, 

And bow their lofty tops, when winds let loose 

Fleet over them, — so moved their multitude. 

Some stood in groups conversing, some aloof 

In bowers sat, half withdrawn, and waked their 

harps 
To sweetest harmonies ; wdth outspread wings. 
Some swept the Empyrean, fleet as thought. 
Heaven's messengers. That was no common joy, 
No calm and tranquil bliss, whose witchery 
Is felt on earth, when lovers meet in bowers ; 
But ecstasies celestial and extreme, 
As when a sire embraces his lost son 
Eeturned from error's gloomy wilderness ; 
Or maiden fair, her lover, exiled long 
From youthful haunts come back, with laurel green 
Of fame around his forehead. Grreater e'en 
Than these, and more triumphant, rapturous, 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 169 

And full of inspiration, was tlie joy 

Of angels, seraphs, principalities, 

And powers, and souls rejoicing. Fountains rose 

Of blessedness o'er all the plain of heaven. 

It seemed the everlasting and abundant urn 

Of God, set up ere angels were create, 

I' the dawning of the past eternity. 

Had new o'erflowings. 

While I silent gazed 
On this celestial jubilee, the cause 
Unable to divine, these words I heard 
Proclaimed — " The lost is found. The lost is found. 
The lost is found." The angels standing near 
The stream of hfe cried out : the human souls 
On every mountain-top, and valley green 
Of bliss, took up the joyful cry : the winds 
From every quarter of the heavens flew forth. 
And audibly pronounced the words — " The lost 
Is found." The angels floating in the midst 
Of the Empyrean shouted louder still 
The words. The echoes of Eternity 
Replied — " The lost is found." Methought I heard 
The voices of the angels on the earth 
Calling aloud up to the heaven of heavens — 



ITO THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

" The lost is found." 

While wondering at this scene 
And holy tumult, soft mine angel spoke 
To me, and said : " Thy native earth-world gives 
This joy to heaven. Look down to the earth-scene 
Which moveth the celestial dignities. 
And holy ones, translated," 

Instantly, 
Earth came and stood before me. It was night 
Upon the coasts of earth, the noon of night — 
The silver moonlight showed a quiet vale 
Afar, amid the forest sohtude. 
A babbling, noisy little brook ran there. 
Glittering beneath the moonlight clear. Just where 
The rivulet emerged from a ravine, 
By tall trees hidden, stood a cottage lone, 
With wild vines twined around it, ruinous 
And old. Faint through its crevices I saw 
One taper's sickly glimmer. 

Suddenly 
A light more dazzling and more beautiful 
Than moonbeams, flooded this earth-scene, and 

straight 
The dazzling forms of mighty angels stood 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 171 

Around tlie cottage walls. Intensely clear 
Their waiting chariots shone. No mortal form 
Was visible in all that solemn place. 
Fitted to "be the vestibule divine 
Of inner heaven, so glorious was it made 
By those bright guests. 

Another change o'er passed — 
I stood within the cottage door ; nor there 
Alone, for angels also were within, 
Ministering to an aged man, who lay 
Upon a bed of leaves a-dying — old. 
With worn and wrinkled brow, and scalp all bare. 
No mortal watched his couch of death : alone 
He lay, not seeing, hearing not, that concourse 

bright 
Which made his solitude a crowded court. 
He prayed, and through my soul his words of prayer 
Passed like an arrow, cleaving the blue air, 
Instinct, and piercing with divinest hope 
And faith. 

This much I learned from his converse 
With God : that in his youth he strayed diverse 
From Virtue's peaceful, holy way, serene ; 
Spurning the fragrant blossoms which were there, 



172 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

On every tree and flower. Like one borne on 

Tlirougli deserts desolate and devious : dark 

And pleasureless^ lie wandered on and on 

In siQ. From beetling precipices fell 

To deeper gulfs. Nor stopped lie once to think, 

To list for warning voices from without, 

Or for that one within. Nor paused he e'en 

When the Death Angel took his holy sire 

And mother from the earth : nor when gray hairs 

And vision dim warned him of coming age. 

His supplication shook his shrivelled form, 

Like lonely tree upon a mountain-top, 

By wintry wind assailed. His penitence 

So thrilled me, that from weeping held I not. 

Meanwhile the angels moved not, who were there, 

But listed to his prayer, as witnesses 

From God. 

A change came o'er the scene. Methought 
I was translated back again to bliss. 
When I could hear distinct, and feel the joy 
Of the rejoicers. As we flew to heaven. 
Mine angel talked with me, as friend with friend. 
And said : " God's mercy found the aged man. 
As he stood toppling on the precipice 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 173 

Of time, o'erchanging hell ; and like a ship 
Safe moored in quiet hay, where no storms rage, 
Now finds he anchorage in the clear sea 
Of God's electing love, no more to drift 
Amid the hreakers of a sinful life ; and hence 
These songs, and grand rejoicings, filled the bounds 
Of heaven, what time the herald angels came 
With news of his repentance, fresh from earth." 

Nor more I heard, for I espied the soul 
Of him I loved, and his tall angel stand 
Amid the dream, contemplating the scene 
Of this repenting sinner. 

Suddenly 
I was home on, my angel with me flew. 
The region which I passed was like a land 
Where mists ohscure and change the scenery. 
We lighted in a valley 'mid the hills, 
Gorgeous with manifold flowers, unHke the hlooms 
Of earth, and verdurous with unearthly greens. 
And cooled with liquid lapse of rivers clear. 
Such as man's eye ne'er saw, since were shut out 
The four immortal floods of Paradise. 
That ever present pair were present still. 



1T4 THE GTARDIAN ANGEL. 

And here mine angel said : " The vale behold 

Of thoughts and fancies. Thoughts are these 

trees all, 
Thoughts all these flowers. Ideas grow for aye, 
In this enchanted place." 

I answered him, 
And said : "I know that God sowed all the 

thoughts 
Of all his worlds ; but never dreamed of place 
Where fancies grow like flowers, and trees of earth, 
And thoughts flow like earth's rivers, but more 

bright 
As from diviner founts, themselves divine, 
With mirrored gleams of ever-living bliss/' 

At this, he put into my hand of flesh 
A cluster of these thoughts, which he had plucked 
From the umbrageous tree, whose branches fair 
Spread overhead, and bade me taste. 

'Twas sweet 
To taste, and instantly I felt my mind 
Uprise, far-sighted, as the eagle borne 
Amid the Empyrean. Earth was gone, 
And all things earthly. Bodiless, all soul, 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 175 

I seemed to hang in highest pride of place, 

Where every thing was seen, and known, and felt. 

I saw the secrets of the universe 

Lie open, I saw the planets ride the fields 

Of space, like charioteers, or white-winged ships 

Earth's oceans sailing. First like myriad sparks 

They rode the firmament ; but as I gazed, 

I knew them for the suns and stars of space 

Which I had often seen, in the night skies 

Of earth, diminished to my human ken 

By distance, now revealed distinct and broad 

In their true lustre and colossal size. 

But still from these it came not, the great light 

Which flooded all, as from one central source. 

With living glory, Not the glory of the sun. 

Or moon, or planet, which have each their own 

Particular effulgence, but unknown 

From whence it came, mystic, and full of awe. 

Gazing on these, high o'er the horizon's rim, 

Methought a huge gigantic wheel arose, 

Instinct with eyes, whence flowed that light sublime, 

Which saw at once all corners of all space. 

Naught hidden from their world-pervading ken. 

Slowly it rolled towards me through the fields 



1T6 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Of space. Spoke after spoke I saw arise 
And then descend. Epoclis and eras hung 
With great events ; and in its track "behind 
The destinies of all the worlds of God. 

Brighter it shone, and brighter, as it neared ; 

So that I saw the dread futurities 

Of all created things, revolving grow 

On every revolution, thick as leaves 

Upon the trees of earth. There was no world 

In all the universe, whose destiny 

Its vast gyrations did not roll along, 

As on and on it rolled, with angel throngs 

Around it ministering. Mine eyes observed, 

AVhat till that moment unobserved was, 

A mighty spirit in the centre stand. 

Who gave it motion — motion evermore ! 

I knew the wheel of Providence, which ne'er 
Had stood an instant still since endless space. 
Endless eternity, and God alone 
Had being — nor would stop for evermore : 
Nor turn aside, nor backward, but sweep on 
Ever and ever, by the will propelled 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 177 

Of Him who ordered it, in shape displayed 

Of spiritual guide its course to rule, 

Subordinate to that eternal scheme 

Predestinate of Mercy, that all worlds 

Should know its triumphs, and confess the plan 

Of Justice made complete, but quenched in Grace ! 

Voices now fell upon my ear. " Whence came 
These words ? " 1 asked mine angel. 

He replied : 
" That is the martyr cry, heard at this hour 
Each day before the throne. The martyred souls 
Appear, an awful multitude, each eve 
Before the veiled mountain of the Lord, 
When the white throne offers access to all. 
And cry — ' How long, Lord ? — How long, 

Lord ? — 
How long, Lord ? tUl vengeance girdeth on 
His sword, and goeth down to vindicate 
Our wrongs on earth ? ' When silence hath ensued, 
No voice replying to them from the throne, 
They take departure to their ministries 
Eemote, and come again at the set hour 
Ordained for their renewing aye their cry. 



178 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

If thou couldst listen here to-morrow eve 
Again, thine ear would catch their martyr cry," 

The voice had ceased ; and as they silent stood 
Awaiting answer from the throne, the dream 
Showed me a mountain rise grand as the Alps, 
And like them too, with turrets high, all filled 
With martyrs. Vast they seemed as army, past 
Enumeration. Beautiful their robes 
And coronets gleamed out. As rapt I stood 
Beholding them, my angel said : " Anon 
Thou wilt converse with them, and know each one. 
Then lifting up his hand, he pointed out 
The British martyrs, as one only could 
Who with them was in fellowship conjoined. 
He showed me those of Bladenock ; then those 
Of Ayrsmoss, Pentland Hills, Lochgoin, 
Of Galloway, of Glasgow, Irvine, Ayr, 
Of Edinburgh, Saint Andrews. 

Nor heard I, 
Nor saw more of them, for even then, aloft. 
Upon the highest pinnacles of all. 
Above that semicirque of towering hills, 
I saw my husband and his angel stand. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 179 

Like scenes in some earth-drama, so my dream 
Changed ever. How the soul can pass from place 
To place remote, in dreams, the mind of man 
Hath not to know. But now, methought I walked 
Amid the Paradise of angels, where 
My guide led me. The scenery divine 
Surpassed the Paradise of souls. Perchance 
I only saw the suburhs of the land. 
Where ransomed spirits from the earth abide. 
All over it triumphal arches rose. 
Colossal, sculptured, white, most beautiful 
To see. The everlasting trees were there, 
Erect, umbrageous, high ; and underneath 
Their branches groups of angels stood, and traced 
The mysteries inscribed on the arches grand. 
I saw the tree of life, but I forgot 
To taste its fruit — oh strange forgetfulness ! 
For I could then have passed secure alway 
At pleasure, through the Vale of Death, to see 
The disembodied, whom I love. 

There were 
No broken columns there, no torches wrought 
On pyramid or obelisk : no urns 
To tell of ashes there enclosed, once shrines 



180 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Of human souls. Tliere was no type of death 
In all the place. 

But now, mine angel guide 
Paused suddenly, and said : " Behold yon arch, 
Erect to the creation ; angels all 
Affirm they found it standing there, what time 
New made, they entered hither, while God's word 
By which they were create, first in their ears 
Kesounded. Over it was carved distinct 
The universe ; but ere I took in all 
Its beauty and design, it passed away ; 
Or I passed from it, and another rose, 
Of structure more sublime, mine eyes before — 
The grand memorial of the Mercy scheme. 
Columns on columns rose, immense its span. 
And vast the avenue it overhung. 
Through which God's chariots all abreast might 

drive ; 
And all the souls of man create, or yet 
To be created. Nor alone it stood, 
Nor far aloof from it its sister arc 
Eose, beautiful with carven hieroglyphs 
Forewrought : around it myriads of bright souls 
Hung joyful. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, 181 

This, the angel said, " I saw- 
Arise, what time the primal Sabbath day- 
Was ended. All the unnumbered angels 
To build it up. 'Tis dedicate by Grod 
To earth's own Sabbath-day." 

As feather borne 
Upon the air, so easily I moved 
From scene to scene. Methought the angels all, 
Who travelled there, saw me with eyne surprised, 
For all were spirits, saving only I ; 
And each saluted me with reverence 
Profound and fitting. 

Suddenly again 
Mine angel paused, and thus outspoke he clear, 
PoiDtiag an amaranth ensculptured group 
Of figures, resting on a pedestal 
High o'er my head. Eecent, the scene portrayed, 
In this surpassing statuary. He said : 
" Full many scenes has earth like this, but heaven 
This only, nor this even, save that here 
Admiring angels wrought it from the life, 
And set it up in Paradise, ablaze 
With adamant and topaz." 

At the sight, 



182 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

My heart was stirred to its profoundest deeps. 
A sculptured group it was, larger tlian life — 
A weary motlier on her couch of straw, 
"Worn out with ill-paid toil, asleep — with toil, 
Painfully borne, to win her children bread ; 
But ministering angels hovered near, 
Protecting them, while innocently slept 
The babes around that sad parent. 

Next, I stood 
Before the arc, erect to prayer. These words 
Engraved on it — " Prayer brings the human soul 
Into God's house of banqueting, and opes 
His treasures unto it." 

Mine angel said : 
" Man needeth prayer to perfect every grace, 
To sanctify afflictions, teachings, joys : 
Faith is its hand : — all men at death can pray. 
A sigh — a tear — a look — a thought — a word — 
Is prayer." 

While yet he spoke, I felt myself 
Moving in silence up the avenue, 
So rich in trophies of aerial art. 
Again we paused, for here uprose the arc 
Triumphal, dedicate to holy love. 



THE GUARDIAN ANG-EL. 183 

No structure ever was erect on earth 
So passing fair. 

Three rounded vaults uprose, 
On columns high as heaven, all sculptured o'er 
With Grod's decrees. The angels builded it, 
What time the scheme of mercy was made known 
To them, and writ God's mystic sentences 
Thereon, that coming ages might behold 
His loving kindness unto men. 

These words — 
" Love is the eldest attribute o' G-od," 
Alone I read, for mine angelic guide 
Addressed me, " 'Mid the farthest ancient years. 
The everlasting cycles which had rolled 
Before creation was, Jehovah loved 
Thy race. Love was the password given to us, 
The angel family, when we audience sought 
Before the throne, that memorable hour 
We put on being." 

Only one sight more 
I saw in that angelic Paradise : 
The semblance of what had been, if on earth 
By human builders reared, of cedarn beams. 
And alabaster buttress, coigne and spire ; 



184 THE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. 

But here of immaterial splendors, glories far 
Surpassing Grecian art, compact and tack : 
A vast cathedral, where all earth might come 
To worship. Worshippers I saw not there, 
Yet myriads of bright beings walked its isles. 
Or stood upon its towers, or waiting near. 
Grazed on its marvellous supernatural size. 
Its beauty and completeness. 

" What is here, 
angel ! " I inquired. 

He answering, said : 
" The antitypal structure it is, forebuilt 
To the great work of truth — the Bible. There 
All nations of the earth may congregate 
To worship God, emblem divine and fit. 
The Bible offereth aU the famihes 
Of man the grand redemption scheme. Oft here 
Thy disembodied soul anon wiU come. 
And ever find new mysteries set forth 
Herein." 

Nor more I heard, for I was borne 
Away to the encircling battlements 
Of bliss. As o'er the parapets I leaned 
Earthward, I saw angelic chariots ride 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 185 

The mighty Empyrean. Thick as fleets 

Of argosies on summer seas they rode : 

Triumphantly the grand procession moved, 

With pomp of banners, trumpet-clang, and shouts 

Of myriads, who celestial welcome gave 

To those who upward soared, enrobed in light. 

" These," cried my spirit guide — " these are the 

souls 
Elect, and the bonds redeemed of sin 
Upcoming from the earth, their mission there 
Completed, and their weary race all run, 
As warriors from the battle-field of time, 
Victorious and triumphant. Angels lead 
The way. God sends such retinues divine, 
To earth for holy souls, whene'er their lease 
Of years expires. No infant ever leaps 
From off the battlements of time, across 
The gulf of death, to these immortal coasts 
Of grand Eternity, unaided, lone : 
Angelic chariots bear them o'er, and aye 
They meet aerial couriers on the way 
To bliss, who welcome them, and join the throng 
Of the attendant hosts for them sent down. 



186 THE GUAKDIAN ANGEL. 

Cheering them still with minstrelsy divine, 
And hymns celestial." 

At the word he paused — 
I looked, and saw my husband's spirit nigh, 
With that angelic presence at his side 
Approaching me. As soft his winning smile, 
And full and fond his darkly swimming eye. 
As tender his persuasive accents fell, 
Piercing my heart, as erst, when on the shores 
Of that old father of the southern floods, 
In buoyant youth and ecstasy divine. 
Of that strong passion which makes earth seem 

heaven, 
We strayed, affianced. 

Deep it pierced my heart. 
That murmured voice, whose every tone was love, 
Yet inarticulate of mortal words. 
And thrilling the perception of the soul. 
With silent utterances understood. 
But all unspoken. As the electric sense 
Of things forgotten long, which flash at once 
At striking of some casual chord, unknown. 
And unconnected with the thought it makes 
Upon the muser's spirit — so, it seemed. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 187 

His accents smote my heart, and told me all, 

All I had longed, had prayed, had striven to know 

Since he departed, though no human words 

Spoke to mine ear. They told me that — True 

Love 
On earth is love m heaven — as Truth in time, 
E'en in eternity, be only truth. 
That as the soul survives, and bears aloft 
With the self-soul, self- consciousness — for else 
Eeward and Pain were neither Penalty 
Nor Eecompense, but states of woe or bliss. 
Casual, and independent of all else, 
Foreign or future — so must needs survive. 
And mount with it, aloft, that which it had, 
While working out its problem here below 
Of best, of purest, and of least terrene. 
Its clear affections and its hallowed loves. 
Permitted. 

Then it seemed, around me grew 
In clear embrace, his pinions of broad light. 
Pressing me to his heart, whose every throb 
I counted, by its audible beat, and felt, 
In the pulsating rush of soul to soul. 
Too strong for poor humanity to bear. 



188 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Yet, in ecstasy of bliss me seemed, 

Fearing his sure departure — for I felt 

His spirit presence melting from my arms. 

As snow-wreaths in soft thaw-time. I cried out : 

" G-ive me, beloved, give me, ere we part. 

Again to meet, before the natural time 

And consummation of this earthly life 

Shall make me, too, as thou immortal art. 

Give me the unspoken word, which spoken once 

Unlocks the barriers of the spiritual world, 

And lifts the mortal for a moment up 

With immortality commune to hold/' 

Strange was his aspect as the words I spoke, 

Perchance too daring — as the full-orbed moor 

When misty vapors wavering o'er its face 

Obstruct its clear effulgence, and distort 

Its blessed influence, terrifying realms 

And purple tyrants, on their trembling thrones. 

With supernatural fear, portentous awe. 

But soon the gloom o'erpassed, and his own smile 

Kindled his face, and kissed his parting lips. 

As bending o'er me, nearer than before, 

He made as he would speak. 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 189 

Oh. that he had ! 
But in that rapture, all too great to bear, 
In that anticipation of the boon 
Never to mortal given, save, who saw 
The things apocalyptic ; and who rose 
Mortal, among the chariots and steeds 
Of Israel — I started — I awoke ! 
My friend, it was a dream ; and all I saw, 
I heard, was nothing, save the linked maze 
Of sleep-engendered fantasies. 

" Not so ! " 
I cried, " not so ! For who shall tell what He 
Hath left untold, or that unreal, judge. 
Which may, alone, be real : — that a dream 
Which seems aU fact to us ; and what we hold 
Mere fancy, truth substantial ? Here we pause 
By our own imperfection cut short off 
From comprehension of his ways sublime. 
In which alone he walketh. Only this — 
That every thing which is of Him is good ; 
And that, of all the things which are, nothing 
Hath been without Him, or can be." 

Naught else 
Was spoken ; but adown the road we went 



190 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

With thouglits, it may be, not removed far 

From sucli as swelled the deep and speechless souls 

Of the disciples, going down the mount 

Of the Transfiguration ; musing, half 

In awe, in rapture half, the Great To Be, 

Hereafter, and the future state of man. 

ENVOY. 

My lay must needs end here. 

A page is writ, 
And hut a single page of a vast tome. 
Whence pages of more profit shall he read. 
More worthy of the holy harp of time ! 
! that some poet should arise on earth 
Commissioned to indite the Gospel theme 
In numbers, and to woo the erring ear 
Of sinful man, from the bewitching strains 
And melody of harps unsanctified. 
Messiah's reign is all unsung — unsung 
His yielding up the Mediatorial Throne 
To the Father ; and his intercession done ! 
But all too great for uninspired bards 
Such theme, if even Milton's lyre of gold 



THE GFAEDIAN ANGEL. 191 

Should wake to hymn it from the timeless sleep 
Of ages ; and unfit the field for mortal feet 
Of earth's best earthly minstrels. 

But now, here, 
My canticle is ended. It may be 
The earth-flowers I have gathered, through long 

years, 
Might earlier have perished, but for this 
Mine effort to embalm their sweets in verse. 
Would that the verse had worthier been ; the bard 
More fitted to the theme ; and yet, perchance, 
This may take root and live awhile on earth. 
And so, farewell, my harp, and farewell ye 
Who list my humble strains. And may the lay 
Not perish profitless, but, green and strong, 
Grow like the tree of life in Paradise, 
And offer shade and fruit of living thought 
To many a weary earthborn traveller, 
When the poor hand which wrote it shall be dust. 



THE END. 



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14 May 1B59 






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